North Korea missile said capable of hittting USA

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Paris, Saturday, February 19, 2000 New Missile Reported in North Korea California Is Within Its Range, a Defector Tells South Koreans

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- By Don Kirk International Herald Tribune ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- SEOUL - A senior North Korean scientist who reportedly defected to the United States has told South Korean authorities that the North has developed a missile capable of reaching California, a leading newspaper here reported Friday. The defector, Lim Ki Sung, said the missile had a range of 6,000 kilometers, 3,725 miles, far longer than defense experts had previously estimated, Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's largest newspaper, reported.

''That distance would be a really big development,'' said Cho Chung Pyo, assistant foreign affairs secretary on the staff of President Kim Dae Jung. ''That kind of capability was never previously indicated.''

The newspaper said that Mr. Lim, who is 59, had fled North Korea in December along with his son, 31, also a missile expert, and a nephew, 32, who had been a North Korean Army officer.

The three told a bizarre story of having decided to flee after Mr. Lim's wife died and a number of their relatives were executed, according to the paper.

They shielded their escape by planting the bodies of starvation victims inside their house before setting it on fire, burning the bodies so the authorities could not identify them and would believe Mr. Lim and his relatives were the victims, the newspaper said.

The three then obtained false Chinese passports and American visas with the help of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the newspaper reported, and flew to the United States from Shanghai.

A U.S. State Department official refused to comment on the report, saying, ''We don't confirm or deny whether a specific individual may or may not have been granted asylum.''

The South Korean newspaper said the three had passed on vital information on the North Korean missile program.

North Korea launched a three-stage Taepodong-1 missile 1,380 kilometers that passed over Japan on Aug. 31, 1998, but it has refrained from testing a new version, the Taepodong-2, that intelligence analysts believe could travel farther.

Some intelligence sources have said the newer version could be capable of reaching Alaska or Hawaii.

The North has held out the threat of testing such a missile amid negotiations with the United States over lifting economic sanctions.

North Korea's missile capability has aroused concern in Japan and the United States largely because the missiles could deliver warheads bearing chemical and biological weapons.

U.S. officials have said that the North has stockpiled such weapons even though it apparently gave up attempting to build a nuclear warhead in 1994 after signing the Geneva framework agreement.

Cheon Seong Wun, a senior research fellow in the Korean Institute of National Unification, an adjunct of South Korea's Unification Ministry, noted that a number of North Korean experts had defected in recent months, moving across North Korea's border with China.

''Obviously it's embarrassing to the North,'' he said, ''but that doesn't disturb their missile option.''

He questioned, however, whether the North could fire a long-range missile with any accuracy.

''How can they go from 2,000 kilometers to 6,000 kilometers without testing?'' he asked.

Chosun Ilbo reported that Mr. Lim had said North Korea's missile technology was ''first class'' and that the 6,000-kilometer-range missile was ''apparently ready to fly.''

''North Korea is aiming at America, not South Korea,'' the newspaper quoted him as having said. ''North Korea has been nurturing the long-range missile despite hunger or hardship.''

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-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), February 22, 2000

Answers

gas masks, anyone?

-- jocelyne slough (jonslough@tln.net), February 22, 2000.

"How can they go from 2,000 kilometers to 6,000 kilometers without testing?" he asked.

Build lots and lots. They'll only get one chance to actually use them anyway. If they mad enough (mad crazy and/or mad angry) to use them, then how many do they actually have to land on target? 50? 100? So bet on 5% and build 2000. The financial cost is in development and maintenance, not construction - or use.

USA sabre rattling is becoming inreasingly dangerous. At some point soon, any pissant country in the world is going to have the means to inflict terrible casualties on any other. When we reach that point, the fact that the USA could wipe an aggressor off of the face of the earth becomes irrelevant. At two paces, there's not a lot of practical difference between a nuke and a hand grenade.

Let's face it: a lot of the world hates and fears the USA. Two questions remain:

1) What happens when they're not afraid any more.

2) Are we planning on doing anything about it before the first NBC attack?

-- _ (_@_._), February 22, 2000.


Not good news. But it would require genuine insanity - not just instability, but full-blown insanity - for North Korea to initiate a missile attack against the USA.

So, they launch a few missiles, kill a few million at the utmost stretch. Then they are annihilated by massive retaliation. They have no allies, so that would be the end of the story.

I can see bluster, threats, posturing, but not a serious intent to take us to total war. Just repeat that. Total war between the USA and North Korea. Any doubt who prevails? I thought not.

-- Brian Mclaughlin (brianm@ims.com), February 22, 2000.


Agree that this is not good news. It is an example of why I support a missile defense program...but I'd like it to also cover Hawaii!

I would hope that the North Koreans (and anybody else, for that matter) would know that their capital city would be more or less flat, glassy, and glow in the dark for many years after such a fiasco! Unfortunately, even massive retaliation would not necessarily deter everyone. There are still the fanatics.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), February 22, 2000.


Remember who holds the Football.

I seriously doubt he has the stones for the decision, unless they call him names while they are doing it, and show him that the last babe had a social disease.

Tilli

-- Tillijen, Gunner (warhammer@Pride.of.Mandeyne), February 23, 2000.



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