North Korea yesterday stirred up a strategic weapons storm in the Pacific by launching a new, long-range ballistic missile which overflew Japan before splashing down in the ocean.
Pyongyang's cry for world attention shattered the limits of Western tolerance when it emerged that the Daepodong-1 rocket passed without permission through Japanese airspace.
Recognising for the first time that it is in range of its militaristic neighbour, Tokyo responded by withdrawing financial backing from the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (Kedo), an international agreement that funds peaceful nuclear technology and energy supplies for the beleaguered Communist regime.
'We see this as a very dangerous act,' a senior Japanese government spokesman, Hiromu Nonaka, warned. 'It will have a serious impact on the security of North-east Asia.' Japan plans further diplomatic protests.
The United States secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, said the tests would be raised in talks with North Korea that resumed in New York yesterday. 'We are concerned about it, as are the Japanese and the Russians,' she said.
In extended Japanese television news broadcasts, commentators claimed the new missile was capable of carrying a 1,000kg nuclear, chemical or conventional warhead. Some Japanese analysts speculated that the missile's trajectory may have been caused by a malfunction.
Japan's defence agency said the incident would encourage the government to approve plans to develop a missile defence system with the US.
Alarm bells sounded in Moscow after reports that Russia's early warning systems failed to spot the North Korean missile. Defence officials later claimed they had been able to track it.
Vladimir Yakovlev, the commander of Russian strategic rocketry, said North Korea had told Moscow of the launch in advance, according to Interfax news agency. 'However, the missile inadvertently changed its path and was not observed by Russian tracking hardware,' Mr Yakovlev was quoted as saying.
US and Japanese intelligence had been on the alert for the test of the Daepodong-1 missile, but the incursion into Japanese airspace appears to have come as a shock. They monitored the rocket's second stage passing over Japan to land 200 miles east in the Pacific. The first stage came down south-east of Vladivostok, on the edge of Russian territorial waters.
Pyongyang's action is alarming partly because its motives are often impenetrable. If the missile was intended to overfly Japan, it must have been designed to cause a strong reaction.
Such behaviour may appear deeply misguided for a country suffering acute hardship, with millions of its population desperately short of food. But North Korean leaders believe that its missile and nuclear potential is the only card left to play.
Pyongyang's action may be a clumsy attempt to gain the upper hand in negotiations with the US to implement the 1994 nuclear deal that began in New York 10 days ago. But hardliners in the leadership may have gone too far in seeking to please their leader, Kim Jong-il.
Before details of the missile overflight became clear, Kedo had announced that South Korea would fund 70 per cent of a pounds 3 billion deal on supplying peaceful nuclear technology to the North. Japan, the US and the European Union are also contributors.
Observers believe the test is timed to coincide with next week's 50th anniversary of the regime's establishment. Mr Kim is expected to be formally named as state president by the national assembly on Saturday.
The Daepodong-1 missile is believed to have a range of 1,300 miles - twice that of the Rodong missile North Korea has exported to Iran, Iraq and Syria. There are concerns that a version with twice the range is on the drawing-board.
Last week the US expressed concern that North Korea was working on a huge underground project near the nuclear complex at Yongbyon. In the 1994 accord, Pyongyang agreed to freeze its nuclear weapons programme in exchange for civil-use nuclear technology and supplies of fuel oil. At the weekend there were indications that North Korea would allow inspection of the site.
Pyongyang complains that the US and Japan have failed to deliver what was promised.
The scare came as a fresh gap emerged in Russia's early warning coverage. An anti-missile radar in Skrunde, Latvia, was switched off, leaving Russia with less reliable warning of possible attack.