Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon rejected providing North Korea with rocket boosters to put its own satellites into space, but suggested that Washington would consider launching North Korean satellites.

"We do think that developing space launch capability is frequently a way to move toward ICBM capability. So we are in favor of helping countries get into space without developing that capability," Bacon said.

"We would be willing to explore further with North Korea ways to help them meet their space needs short of having them develop their own missile program," he said.

It was the most positive US response yet to Russian President Vladimir Putin's assertion Wednesday that North Korea had pledged to shut down its missile program if other countries provide it with rocket boosters for space exploration.

In the past, Washington has dismissed North Korea's claim to be developing a space launch capability as a cover for its intercontinental missile program.

North Korea's first and only foray into space -- the launch of a three-stage rocket over Japan in August 1998 -- set off alarm bells in Washington because it showed that Pyongyang had developed the technologies needed to build an intercontinental missile capable of hitting the United States.

Bacon said "in principle we would be opposed to" providing North Korea rocket technology that could be used for missiles.

But, he said, "One way to read the comments by President Putin and Chairman Kim is that other countries will launch satellites for North Korea."

Washington was seeking clarification from Moscow about exactly what North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had proposed to Putin during their meeting in Pyongyang, he said.

President Bill Clinton was expected to raise the subject with the Russian president during a summit of industrialised nations in the Japanese island of Okinawa, US officials said.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright also was expected to touch on the issue if she has a meeting with the North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun in Bangkok at the ASEAN regional forum in Bangkok next week, they said.

Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying that North Korea was prepared to rely exclusively on "other nations' rocket technologies, if it receives rocket boosters for peaceful space exploration."

The North Korean pledge -- disclosed on the eve of the Okinawa summit -- was widely seen as aimed at undercutting US arguments for deploying a national missile defense (NMD) against long-range missiles fired from North Korea or other countries.

Russia and China vehemently oppose deployment of the anti-missile shield, which also has raised misgivings among US allies in Europe.

Clinton will weigh the international impact of deploying the system, as well as the missile threat, in deciding whether to give the go-ahead for construction of the system, officials said.

Upon returning from Okinawa, he is to be briefed on an updated national intelligence estimate that reviews the threat and assesses the political fallout of deployment, officials said.

A key question is whether the North Korean missile threat has abated in light of that country's moratorium on missile tests, the warming relations with South Korea, and the latest gesture from Pyongyang.

The previous intelligence estimate that North Korea was likely to have a long-range missile capable of hitting the United States by 2005 has driven the schedule for deciding whether or not to order deployment of the system.

The Pentagon says the anti-missile system will not be ready by 2005 unless the president gives the order this fall to begin construction of the first piece of the system -- a targeting radar on Alaska's Shemya island.

His decision has been complicated by the system's failure to intercept a target missile in two of three tries, which has fueled debate over whether it will work.

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SPACEWAR.COM
US Skeptical of North Korean Offer To Turn Missiles Into Spaceships
Thurmont (AFP) July 19, 2000 - The United States expressed skepticism Wednesday over North Korea's reported pledge to give up its missile program in exchange for access to space rocket technology.