November 23, 2001	Friday	Ramazan 7, 1422

SEOUL, Nov 22: South Korea on Thursday test fired a short-range missile off its west coast as part of a programme to develop new missiles capable of hitting targets in most of North Korea, officials said.

The missile with a 100 kms (60-mile) range was fired at 0700 GMT from a military base controlled by the Agency for Defence Development (ADD), the defence ministry said.

The ADD base is located near Taejon, 120 kms (72 miles) south of Seoul.

“The missile fell on a designated place in the several minutes after its firing,” it said, adding the US military had been informed of South Korea’s missile firing.

Ministry officials said the missile fell into waters off the west coast, not in the East China Sea.

In Tokyo, a Japanese Defence Agency official told Kyodo news agency that the suspected missile did not pose a danger.

Japan has been particularly nervous over North Korea’s missile development since Pyongyang test-fired a ballistic missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean in August 1998.

The ministry gave no details but this was the first known test firing of a South Korean missile since the country joined the Missile Control Technology Regime, an international safeguard accord, in March.

The last known test firing of a missile by Seoul was in 2000, although there have been unofficial reports of further tests this year, after South Korea adopted new guidelines on missile and commercial rocket development in January.

The new policy would allow South Korea to develop short-range missiles with a range of 300 kms and a payload of 500 kilograms (227 pounds).

A previous accord with the United States limited South Korea’s missile range to 180 kms.—AFP