By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
North Korea appeared close Sunday to test-firing a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States, prompting the White House to warn of an appropriate response and Japan to threaten a "fierce" protest to the United Nations.
North Korea was silent on the issue but vowed to bolster its "military deterrent" in a burst of fiery rhetoric carried by its state news agency.
A test launch of what is believed to be a Taepodong-2 missile would inflame a region already tense over the North's continuing nuclear weapons program.
"There are signs" of an imminent missile launch, Jung Tae-ho, a spokesman at the South Korean president's office, told The Associated Press. He added that security officials were "closely watching the situation."
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