N Korea's missile sights on US

2004-08-03 20:56

London - North Korea is developing a pair of new ballistic missile systems, including a sea-launched model, which could soon enable the state to target the United States, said a leading military publication on Tuesday.

"Both these new land- and sea-based systems appreciably expand the ballistic missile threat presented by the DPRK," said a report in Jane's Defence Weekly, using the official name for the country, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The version of the missile capable of being launched from submarines or ships "is potentially the most threatening", Jane's said.

"It would fundamentally alter the missile threat posed by the DPRK and could finally provide its leadership with something that it has long sought to obtain - the ability to directly threaten the continental US."

Known to have ballistic missile technology

Information about North Korea's military capabilities in invariably sketchy given the ultra-secretive nature of its hardline communist regime, ruled for the past half-century by father-and-son dictators Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il.

However, the country is known to possess ballistic missile technology.

In August 1998, Pyongyang stunned the world by test-launching a Taepodong-1 missile over Japan, officially claiming it was a satellite launch.

Four years later, the US said North Korea had acknowledged it was developing nuclear weapons, prompting a series of as-yet-unsuccessful talks involving Washington as well as China, South Korea, Russia and Japan.

Range up to 4 000km

According to Jane's Defence Weekly, North Korea is working on a pair of missile systems based on Russian technology, completely different to the Taepodong-1 and its mooted successor, the Taepodong-2, reportedly being tested.

The new systems are based on the defunct Soviet R-27 submarine-launched ballistic missile, known to Nato at the time as the SS-N-6, Jane's said.

The land-based model has an estimated range of 2 500 to 4 000km, bringing into range all of East Asia, as well as Hawaii and US military bases on the Pacific islands of Okinawa and Guam.

The sea-launched model could be fired at least 2 500km, the article said.

- AFP