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Concerns raised over possible North Korean Scud derivative
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| 10 March 2005 |
North Korea has developed a new extended-range (ER) derivative of the Scud missile, said the South Korean newspaper Chosun Il-bo. The newspaper claimed that the Scud ER has a range of 600-1,000 km. It quoted a South Korean government official as saying: "It will pose a direct threat to us because the new Scud missile is capable of striking any target in our country." A range of 1,000 km would allow the missile to reach Tokyo and much of the rest of Japan.
The newspaper quoted a South Korean government source as saying that a US reconnaissance satellite detected the missile one or two years ago and that the US was trying to establish whether the new missile had been operationally deployed.
Testifying before the US Senate Intelligence Committee on 16 February, the day before the story was published, Central Intelligence Agency Director Porter Goss said that North Korea was continuing to develop, produce, deploy and sell ballistic missiles of increasing range and sophistication. He warned that "North Korea continues to market its ballistic-missile technology, trying to find new clients now that some traditional customers, such as Libya, have halted such trade".
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