Inside the Ring

Korean missile shots

North Korea conducted a flight test of its new medium-range antiship cruise missile this week. But additional tests of the missile were postponed because of bad weather off the northeastern part of the peninsula, a U.S. official tells us.

The new missile, which is estimated by the Defense Intelligence Agency to have a range of about 100 miles, when deployed will give the Korean military an “over-the-horizon” capability they currently do not have in their shore-based antiship missiles, the official said.

The longer range requires more accurate guidance and allows the missile to hit U.S. ships at greater distances.

At least two more tests of the missile are expected in the coming days.

“They usually do these tests in threes,” the official said.

A Japanese newspaper reported this week that North Korea had conducted another test of the cruise missile, but the U.S. official said the report was incorrect.

Leak probe

FBI agents have conducted the first round of questioning at the White House, talking to senior officials who may have disclosed the identity of Valerie Plame, the CIA unofficial cover case officer whose identity was disclosed in a syndicated column in July.

A source close to the White House tells us that the FBI agents conducted casual questioning apparently to entrap any leakers. The agents did not take sworn statements from the staff members because lying to an FBI agent during questioning is a crime.

Officials also tell us that Mrs. Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, had a party at their house in early July that included several members of the press. The party has raised questions among some officials about whether Mrs. Plame may have given up her covert status under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act by mingling with reporters.

The FBI is not happy about hunting leakers in the White House. “We’ve got a lot of terrorists out there to look for,” one agent noted.

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