[Iran Press TV Latest] Former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton says that Washington should consider military action against North Korea should its upcoming rocket launch hit Japan. Bolton, who served as US envoy to the United Nations under former president George W. Bush, said he did not support a pre-emptive strike as it was unclear how serious North Korea's test would be. "But if there is a real possibility of this landing in Japan or in any populated area, then we would have to look at it very carefully," Bolton told AFP.
"The Japanese don't have the luxury of distance to see whether it's a grapefruit or a basketball or whatever," he said, referring to speculation on the size of the North Korean payload.
This is while US defense officials and the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said on Tuesday that a commercial satellite image of the Musudan-ri missile test site showed a Taepodong-2 missile with a bulb-shaped payload cover, consistent with a satellite payload, rather than a warhead.
Bolton, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has been an outspoken opponent of what he sees as a policy of rewards to North Korea led by State Department negotiators both under Bush and President Barack Obama.
Stephen Bosworth, the Obama administration's envoy to North Korea, on Friday held out hope that Pyongyang would not go ahead with the launch but said that proper 'consequences' would be requited should the launch take place.