US delays ballistic missile test in bid to ease N Korea tension

North Korea, after weeks of war threats and other efforts to punish South Korea and the US for joint military drills, has told other nations that it will be unable to guarantee diplomats’ safety in the North’s capital beginning on Wednesday.

US General James Thurman, the commander of the 28,000 American troops in South Korea, will stay in Seoul as “a prudent measure” rather than travel to Washington to appear this week before congressional committees, Army Colonel Amy Hannah said in an email yesterday.

Gen Thurman has asked the Senate Armed Services Committee, the House Armed Services Committee and the House Appropriations sub-committee on defence to excuse his absence until he can testify at a later date.

The top US military officer, General Martin Dempsey, who has just returned from Afghanistan, said he had consulted with Gen Thurman about the rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Gen Dempsey said the US has been preparing for further provocations or action, “considering the risk that they may choose to do something” on one of two nationally important anniversaries in April – the birth of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung and the creation of the North Korean army.

Gen Dempsey said both Gen Thurman and South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Jung Seung-jo, decided it would be best for them to remain in Seoul rather than come to Washington.

Gen Dempsey said that instead of meeting in person with Gen Thurman and Gen Jung in Washington, they will consult together by video-teleconference.

Asked whether he foresees North Korea taking military action soon, Gen Dempsey said “No, but I can’t take the chance that it won’t”, and thus the Pentagon has bolstered its missile defences and taken other precautions.

The Pentagon has also postponed an intercontinental ballistic missile test that was set for the coming week at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, a senior defence official said.

The official said US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel decided to put off the long-planned Minuteman 3 test because of concerns the launch could be misinterpreted and exacerbate the Korean crisis.

Meanwhile, William Hague said yesterday that Britain “should be concerned” about North Korea’s activities.

The Foreign Secretary said the “danger of misclaculation” by Kim Jong Un’s regime, which had worked itself up into a “frenetic state of rhetoric”, must be considered. But he insisted it was vital the international community remained calm and stressed there were no signs that North Korea was beginning to re-position its forces ready for war.

Speaking on BBC 1’s Andrew Marr Show, he said: “There’s a threat to the world from any country breaching the non-proliferation treaty, which North Korea is doing, acting in contravention of a whole series of UN Security Council resolutions and setting out to develop more and more longer range weapons, testing new nuclear weapons and indulging in the proliferation of many items to other countries as well.

“We should be concerned about that. There is a danger in that.

“But it is important to stress that we haven’t seen in recent days, in recent weeks, a change in what is happening in North Korean society. We have not been able to observe that. We’ve haven’t seen the repositioning of forces or the redeployment of ground forces that one might see in a period prior to a military assault or to an all out conflict.”