- (AFP) -- North Korea is building two underground bases
for new ballistic missiles with a range of up to 4,000 kilometers (2,500
miles), a newspaper reported, citing a South Korean intelligence official.
-
- The Stalinist country has completed 80 percent of the
work on the bases, indicating deployment of the new intermediate missiles
was imminent, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said in Seoul.
-
- "US intelligence satellites have spotted about 10
new ballistic missiles and mobile launching pads kept at the two places,"
the daily quoted the unidentified official as saying.
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- One of the new bases was in Yangdok, 80 kilometers east
of the capital Pyongyang, and the other was in Hochon in South Hamgyong
province, the official said.
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- There were no details about the new intermediate missiles
but previous US intelligence reports have said they were an improvement
on the Scud and Rodong-type weapons that are the mainstays of North Korea's
arsenal.
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- A missile is normally classified as intermediate if it
has a range of between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. If the new missile's range
is confirmed, its deployment would represent a major boost for North Korea.
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- The country has already deployed short-range Scuds and
Rodongs with a range of 1,300 kilometers, while actively developing longer-range
Taepodong missiles with a range of up to 6,000 kilometers, according to
South Korean analysts.
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- South Korea's defense ministry estimates North Korea
has about 600 Scuds and and 100 Rodong missiles.
-
- Pyongyang stunned the world in August 1998 by test-launching
over Japan a Taepodong-1 missile with a range of up to 2,000 kilometers,
claiming it was a satellite launch.
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- Washington is worried by North Korea's proliferation
of missile technology and its development of longer-range missiles capable
of hitting US territory.
-
- Experts said North Korean missiles with a range of up
to 4,000 kilometers could hit the US Pacific Ocean territories of Guam
and Hawaii.
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- "Most of America's allied forces and navy ships
can be targeted by the North's new missiles," said Kim Myung-Jin of
the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul.
-
- "The North's missile development will push the United
States to build a missile defense network in the region," he said.
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- Missile exports have been a major source of hard currency
earnings for cash-strapped North Korea, which is accused by the United
States of being a leading global proliferator of weapons of mass destruction.
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