41.   Meanwhile, new concerns arise regarding reported missile launchers and a medium-range missile program in the North.

42.   NASA is borrowing some of the technology borne from the scuttled Strategic Defense Initiative missile program and the reduced National Aero-Space Plane.

43.   Moscow and Beijing will view an aggressive U.S. missile defense program as an attempt to both negate their own nuclear deterrents and render their satellites blind.

44.   Nor has the administration signaled how it plans to reassure Beijing about the broader goals of its missile defense program.

45.   North Korea declared Tuesday that it would continue to develop missiles and sell them abroad, rejecting U.S. suggestions that it curb its missile program.

46.   Now, they say, it may be willing to bargain away its missile program, albeit for the right price.

47.   On grounds that North Korea is untrustworthy, the president canceled diplomatic talks with that country about its missile program and other military topics.

48.   President Clinton on Friday sounded out Russian President Vladimir Putin about a possible deal with North Korea aimed at persuading the nation to abandon its missile program.

49.   Rice said Tuesday evening that she hoped to tell the Chinese not to use the missile defense program as an excuse to add to their own arsenal.

50.   Secretary of State Madeleine Albright pressed the Russian foreign minister Wednesday for a Russian commitment to limit cooperation with the Iranian missile program.