US activates interceptor missile defence

WASHINGTON: The US defence department has activated its new ground-based interceptor missile defence system amid North Korea's plans to test-fire a long-range missile.

Two American Aegis warships are already patrolling the waters off North Korea as part of the global missile defence, a media report said on Tuesday.

The missile defence system includes 11 long-range interceptor missiles, including nine deployed at Fort Greeley, Alaska, and two at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

The system has been switched from the test to the operational mode within the last two weeks, the Washington Times reported quoting unnamed officials.

Intelligence officials said preparations for the test-firing have advanced to the point where a launch could take place within several days to a month.

A senior Bush administration official has been quoted by the paper as saying that an option being considered would be to shoot down the Taepodong missile with responding interceptors.

The Pentagon has said very little officially on the North Korean issue and has declined comment on whether the interceptor system is on an operational mode.

The White House has refused to speculate on whether the North Korean Missile would be shot down but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that any launch of missile by Pyongyang would be "taken with utmost seriousness and indeed a provocative act."