Non-Subscriber Extract
North Korean missile firing heightens regional tension
- Article Tools
By David C Isby
A multiple missile or rocket firing by North Korea on 8 March raised tensions in Northeast Asia. However, reports from South Korea, Japan and the US showed divergence as to the number and type of weapons that were fired.
While not explicitly identified, it is likely that these were tests of the KN-02, a design thought to be based on the SS-21 'Scarab' (OTR-21/9M79 Tochka). North Korea is understood to have obtained Tochka hardware from Syria as part of the close working relationship between the two countries in the areas of missiles and weapons of mass destruction. The KN-02 was first reported to have made a test flight in May 2005. It may be a North Korean successor to the FROG series of unguided artillery long-range rockets.
Other reports suggested that the missiles were tests of a new short-range missile. During 10 March testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, General Burwell Bell, combatant commander of US Forces Korea, identified three of the objects fired as short-range solid-propellant missiles that represented "a quantum leap forward from the kind of missiles they have produced in the past".
186 of 518 words