Japan Says It Would Strike First

Tension rose sharply in east Asia yesterday as Japan said it would use force if it thought North Korea was preparing a missile attack, while Pyongyang claimed it was capable of striking American targets "anywhere in the world".

As the rhetoric escalated, China's President Jiang Zemin urged a peaceful settlement of the North Korean nuclear issue, implicitly criticising Washington's reluctance to talk with Pyongyang.

With China, South Korea and Russia urging dialogue while the US and Japan take a harder line, diplomatic divisions in east Asia over the Korean crisis are beginning to match those in Europe over Iraq.

Shigeru Ishiba, Japan's defence minister said North Korea had deployed a number of Rodong missiles with a range of 750 miles. "This is nothing but a threat to our country," he said.

A senior North Korean foreign ministry official was quoted yesterday as saying that Pyongyang was capable of striking US targets anywhere in the world if attacked. Claiming, like Japan, that it would act only "in self-defence", the official claimed that no US military installation would be safe.

On Wednesday, US officials said that North Korea possessed a three-stage missile that could reach the west coast of America but that it had not yet been tested.