North Korea, through its official news agency monitored here, accused Seoul of "imploring the US to allow the increase of missile range" to as much as 500 kilometers (312 miles).

"This clearly shows how recklessly they are running amok in their preparations for a war of aggression against the north from the beginning of the year."

The accusation came as South Korean Foreign Minister Lee Joung-Binn pledged diplomatic efforts aimed at persuading Washington to lift a 28-year-old US curb on Seoul's missile range.

"The missile talks will be going in the direction of satisfying our security needs and lifting all restrictions on developing space programs in the private sector," Lee told the Munhwa daily in Seoul.

"I do not expect an agreement this time. But there will be a compromise in the near future."

Lee, however, said South Korea would try to honor a US-led campaign aimed at curbing global missile proliferation.

Under a 1972 agreement with Washington, South Korea's missile range ceiling was set officially at 180 kilometers in order to avoid triggering an arms race on the tense Korean peninsula.

Now South Korea now wants to boost the range to 300 kilometers for deployment and 500 kilometers for scientific research and development.

US and South Korean officials were due to meet in Hwaii late Tuesday to discuss Seoul's bid to extend its missile range to thwart any North Korean threat.

Song Min-Soon, head of the North American affairs bureau, will lead the South Korean side to the two-day meeting. Washington will be headed by Robert Einhorn, assistant secretary of state for non-proliferation.

South Korea has warned it needs to develop attack missiles with sufficient range to combat North Korea's military and security threat.

"In case of military missiles, South Korea will make utmost efforts to secure such ranges as necessary to meet the demand for military security," a South Korean foreign ministry spokesman said earlier.

Seoul has complained its existing missiles cannot hit any targets beyond the Pyongyang, falling far short of its perceived need to have North Korea's entire territory within range.

South Korea's missile drive was prompted by the test launch of a ballistic North Korean missile over Japan in August 1998.

North Korea last year froze new missile tests in return for political and economic benefitis from the United States.

But it has threatened to resume its ballistic ambitions, charging that Seoul's satellite program was intended to develop ballistic missiles.

Washington and Seoul, closely allied after the 1950-53 Korean War, have held a series of bumpy talks over whether South Korea should possess missiles capable of hitting targets deep inside North Korea.

The difficult talks have dragged on amid US concerns of sparking an arms race in this volatile region where North and South share the world's last Cold War frontier.

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MILSPACE
Korean and French Firms Plan Missile Venture
by Jun Kwan-Woo
Seoul (AFP) February 7, 2000 - French group Thomson-CSF and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. on Tuesday launched a joint venture defense firm, marking a watershed in Seoul's missile development program.