South Korea's foreign minister warned North Korea on Thursday against test-launching a long-range missile, saying such an action would threaten regional stability and trigger punitive measures, AP reported.
South Korea and Japanese media have reported since last week that the North was moving a suspected long-range missile capable of reaching the western United States to a launch pad. The reports came days after Pyongyang declared it would scrap peace accords with Seoul and warned of a war on the divided peninsula.
"If North Korea pushes ahead with a missile launch, this will be an act that seriously threatens stability on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia as well as South-North ties," Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told reporters.
Yu said he could not provide details on the North's alleged plan to test a missile because it involves military intelligence.
The minister said such a test launch would isolate the North and trigger punitive measures, citing U.N. Security Council resolutions on the country's missile tests in 1998 and 2006.
"I want to tell you that (a missile test) will not benefit North Korea at all," Yu said.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday that a vehicle carrying radar equipment was seen moving to a launch site on the North's eastern coast from a munitions factory near Pyongyang.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff and the National Intelligence Service have refrained from commenting on the report, citing the sensitivity of intelligence matters.
North Korea's saber-rattling has been interpreted as an attempt to grab President Barack Obama's attention. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to visit South Korea next week.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. doesn't want to see "provocative acts on the part of the North that will raise tensions" in the region.