N Korea deploys new mid-range missile: South
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
SEOUL, Feb 23 (Reuters): North Korea, which has warned the Korean peninsula is on the brink of war, has deployed new missiles to hit more parts of Asia and improved its ability to attack the South, a South Korean defence paper said Monday.
The isolated North could also test-fire by the end of this month its longest-range missile, which is designed to strike US territory but has never successfully flown, a leading defense analyst said at the weekend.
South Korea's Defence White Paper said the North had deployed a new mid-range missile that can travel up to 3,000 km (1,865 miles) to hit all of its rival Japan and threaten US military bases in Guam.
The North already has hundreds of rudimentary ballistic missiles that could hit all of South Korea and most of Japan, the Seoul government has said.
"North Korea's conventional force, its development and reinforcement of weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear weapons and missiles, and the forward deployment of its troops are a direct and serious threat to our security," the paper said.
The biannual paper said the North, which has 1.19 million troops, had increased the number of its special warfare soldiers by 60,000 to now total 180,000 while modernising its light infantry to improve its strike force pointed at the South.
The paper said the reclusive state had produced about 40 kg (88 lb) of plutonium. Experts said that would be enough for at least five nuclear weapons.
Proliferation experts have said the North, which tested a nuclear device in 2006, does not have the technology to make a nuclear weapon small enough to mount as a warhead.
South Korean officials have said they were worried the North may also try to escalate tension by firing short-range missiles toward a disputed Yellow Sea border with the South off the west coast of the peninsula that has been the scene of deadly naval conflicts between the rival Koreas.
Analysts do not think the impoverished North will risk a larger conflict because its antiquated but massive military would be no match for South Korea with 670,000 troops and its powerful US ally, which positions about 28,000 soldiers in the South.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned the prickly North during a visit to Seoul last Friday not to make any provocative moves, to stop taunting its southern neighbour and return to sputtering international nuclear disarmament talks.
But Monday, the North's official media unleashed more insults by calling South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's government a group of "political charlatans" and warned again that war was imminent.
The isolated North could also test-fire by the end of this month its longest-range missile, which is designed to strike US territory but has never successfully flown, a leading defense analyst said at the weekend.
South Korea's Defence White Paper said the North had deployed a new mid-range missile that can travel up to 3,000 km (1,865 miles) to hit all of its rival Japan and threaten US military bases in Guam.
The North already has hundreds of rudimentary ballistic missiles that could hit all of South Korea and most of Japan, the Seoul government has said.
"North Korea's conventional force, its development and reinforcement of weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear weapons and missiles, and the forward deployment of its troops are a direct and serious threat to our security," the paper said.
The biannual paper said the North, which has 1.19 million troops, had increased the number of its special warfare soldiers by 60,000 to now total 180,000 while modernising its light infantry to improve its strike force pointed at the South.
The paper said the reclusive state had produced about 40 kg (88 lb) of plutonium. Experts said that would be enough for at least five nuclear weapons.
Proliferation experts have said the North, which tested a nuclear device in 2006, does not have the technology to make a nuclear weapon small enough to mount as a warhead.
South Korean officials have said they were worried the North may also try to escalate tension by firing short-range missiles toward a disputed Yellow Sea border with the South off the west coast of the peninsula that has been the scene of deadly naval conflicts between the rival Koreas.
Analysts do not think the impoverished North will risk a larger conflict because its antiquated but massive military would be no match for South Korea with 670,000 troops and its powerful US ally, which positions about 28,000 soldiers in the South.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned the prickly North during a visit to Seoul last Friday not to make any provocative moves, to stop taunting its southern neighbour and return to sputtering international nuclear disarmament talks.
But Monday, the North's official media unleashed more insults by calling South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's government a group of "political charlatans" and warned again that war was imminent.