North Korea claims U.S. within missile range

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea warned Tuesday that the U.S. mainland is within range of its missiles and said Washington's recent agreement to let Seoul possess missiles capable of hitting all of the North shows the allies are plotting to invade the country.

South Korea announced Sunday it reached a deal with Washington that would allow it to nearly triple the range of its missiles to better cope with North Korean missile and nuclear threats. Yesterday, Pyongyang called the deal a "product of another conspiracy of the master and the stooge" to "ignite a war" against the North.

In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, a spokesman at the powerful National Defense Commission said the North will bolster its military preparedness.

"We do not hide . . . the strategic rocket forces are keeping within the scope of strike not only the bases of the puppet forces and the U.S. imperialist aggression forces' bases in the inviolable land of Korea but also Japan, Guam and the U.S. mainland," the spokesman said.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said it had no official comment on the North's statement, but Seoul and Washington have repeatedly said they have no intention of attacking North Korea.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told a news conference that North Korea would achieve nothing through threats and provocations. She declined to say whether the continental U.S. was within the North's missile range.

She said South Korea's missile ranges and capabilities have not changed since 2001, while the North has been clearly working on its own. She said the recent agreement with the South on missiles was defensive in nature.

North Korean long-range rockets are believed to have a range of up to 4,160 miles, putting parts of Alaska within reach, according to South Korea's Defense Ministry.

But the North's spotty record in test launches raises doubts about whether it is truly capable of an attack.

Pyongyang shocked Japan in 1998 when it sent a rocket over Japan's main island and into the Pacific. That also alarmed Washington because about 50,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Japan.