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China-Japan-Koreas
U.S.: North Korea Works on New Missiles
2004-08-06
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States has determined that North Korea is working on new ballistic missile systems designed to deliver nuclear warheads and that it is testing the technology by proxy in Iran, a Bush administration official said Thursday.

Having agreed to a self-imposed test ban, North Korea is sharing technology information with Iran, which carries out missile tests on North Korea's behalf, the administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The missile program is based on Russian technology and has been conducted with help from Russian scientists - help the United States thinks may be continuing, the official said.
Hello, Vlad?
A leading military publication, Jane's Defense Weekly, reported recently that North Korea was developing two new ballistic missile systems that "appreciably expand the ballistic-missile threat." A version of the missile capable of being launched from a submarine or a ship is potentially the most threatening, the weekly said.
I'd like to see an NKor missile launched from an Nkor sub. Not sure which one would disintegrate first.
Not all of the details of the North Korean program are known to the United States, the administration official told The Associated Press. One important question, he said, is whether the missiles are exactly patterned on a Russian model. Another, he said, is whether the missiles could reach the United States.

U.S. officials think North Korea may have the technology for a submarine-launched ballistic missile, but it is not clear whether North Korea has a missile platform, the official said.

Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly held talks with South Korean officials this week in Washington in preparation for a resumption of negotiations, possibly in September. Kelly told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in mid-July the United States would not establish normal relations with North Korea even if it fully met U.S. demands for nuclear disarmament. After four negotiating sessions with North Korea, beginning in April 2003, "it is clear we are still far from agreement," Kelly said.

If North Korea takes substantial steps toward disarmament, the United States would be willing to extend trade and aid benefits to North Korea but not full normalization of relations, Kelly said. That step could be taken only after North Korea improved its human rights performance and ended objectionable activity in other areas, he said.
Posted by:Steve White

#5  Good recipe BG all your need is a big stock pot, a basement and a case of courage.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-08-06 5:48:10 PM  

#4  Yet one more reason to give the Aegis class cruisers and destroyers enhanced missile capability. And hurry the development of the DDX with railgun and free electron laser cpaability
Posted by: cheaderhead   2004-08-06 4:05:13 PM  

#3  Seafarious -
Solid rocket fuel ingredients include 16% atomized aluminum powder as the fuel, 70% ammonium per chlorate as the oxidizer, a 12% polybutadiene acrylic acid acrylonitril as a binding agent, 2% epoxy for curing and extremely small traces of Powdered Beer iron oxide to control the burn rates during flight. 100% of the RDA for 3 vitamins and minerals. I'd hedge my bets on the missiles.
Mmmmm.... Candied Rocket Fuel.... Mmmmm...
/Homer Simpson/
Posted by: Bodyguard   2004-08-06 3:21:11 PM  

#2  Any statements made by us with respect to agreements with the Norks are just fluff for public consumption. The Norks never abide by their agreements. The only sell outs agreements of substance the US will make with the Norks would be made by a Kerry administration, God forbid.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2004-08-06 9:28:42 AM  

#1  I'd like to see an NKor missile launched from an Nkor sub. Not sure which one would disintegrate first.

Hard to say...guess it depends on which one has more edible parts.
Posted by: Seafarious   2004-08-06 1:22:05 AM  

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