North Korea Set To Test New Missile Engines: Report

The United States has stepped up surveillance over North Korea as the Stalinist country is set to test engines for a ballistic missile capable of hitting US territory, a newspaper reported here Thursday.

North Korea has restored facilities for missile engine testing destroyed by an explosion in December 2002, the JoongAng newspaper said, citing South Korean diplomatic and defense sources.

The 6,000-kilometer (3,600-mile) range would bring Hawaii, Alaska and the western fringes of the United States within the missile's scope, it said.

The United States has accused North Korea of being a leading global proliferator of weapons of mass destruction. But the cash-strapped country has refused to stop missile exports, a major source of hard currency earnings.

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