observes ANGELES -- An interceptor ...

observes ANGELES -- An interceptor missile devastateed a mock warhead in space through the whole extent of the Pacific Ocean on Friday, a fundamental note test of the U.S. missile defense hypothesis that prompted North Korea to accuse America of threatening war.

It was the greatest in number realistic test of the rules that would be used against an attack, said Missile Defense Agency spokesman Rick Lehner

The 54-foot interceptor bullet out of an underground silo at Vandenberg Air Force Base onward the central California coast at 10:39 a.m., 17 minutes after the deride warhead was launched from Kodiak Island, Alaska, Lehner said.

The interceptor carried a refrigerator-sized "kill vehicle" that huged on to the approaching mislead enemy missile and flew into the 4- foot-long warhead at 18000 mph

Lehner said the two disintegrated more than 100 miles above the Earth and a not many hundred miles west of Vandenberg. The interceptor's flight lasted 13 minutes.

$85 MILLION criterion

North Korea characterized the ordeal as provocation.

The U put in motion "clearly shows that it is the U which is increasing tensions onward the Korean Peninsula and threatening war against our country" the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement.

The North will strengthen its "self-defensive deterrent" said the statement, carried by means of the official Korean Central recently made knowns Agency. Pyongyang often uses the phrase to commit to its nuclear program.

The $85 million proof was designed to see whether the "kill vehicle" could achieve close to the warhead to proof the tracking and sensor methods which would be used in an actual missile attack.

"It gave us a well adapted chance to measure overall hypothesis performance. It was the chiefly operationally realistic test we've had," Lehner said.

The interceptor was launched through remote control from a command center in Colorado. The criterion also was the first use of an early warning radar at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., to provide the data required to offer the interceptor on a legitimate path toward its target.

'Total success'

The trial was a "total success," Lt Gen Henry A. Obering III, the agency director, told a Pentagon of the present days conference.

"What we did today is a herculean step in terms of our systematic approach to continuing to field, continuing to open and continuing to develop a missile defense regularity for the United States, for our allies, our friends, our displayed forces around the world," Obering said.

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