North Korea Advances Missile Technology

General B. B. Bell has informed the U.S. House Armed Services Committee that the North Koreans have greatly improved their missile technoogy, and that they are also moving ahead with the development of longer-range ballistic missiles that could hit Alaska and targets in the continental United States. This in reference to the recent test launch by North Korea of two short-range missile that apparently fell into the Sea of Japan.


North Korea missiles tested are quantum leap

North Korea's testing of two short-range missiles on Wednesday came during a stalemate in six-country talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programmes.

Pyongyang says it has nuclear weapons but proliferation experts have questioned its ability to mount them on missiles.

"(They) are, in fact, a quantum leap forward from the kind of missiles that they have produced in the past," Bell told the hearing, referring to the short-range missiles tested this week.

The missiles were boosted by solid fuel, rather than liquid fuel, providing greater reliability, mobility and precision, he said.

"They are routinely testing these," Bell told the hearing, according to an audio recording made available on Friday on the U.S. House committee's Web site.

North Korea test-fired a similar missile in May last year. A senior Bush administration official said the missiles tested this week did not leave North Korean territory.

South Korean daily JoongAng Ilbo said North Korea fired the two missiles from its east coast and they probably dropped into the sea about 100 km (60 miles) away, citing a government source.

The have been launching long-range missiles too;

`NK Missile Warhead Found in Alaska’

The warhead of a long-range missile test-fired by North Korea was found in the U.S. state of Alaska, a report to the National Assembly revealed yesterday.

"According to a U.S. document, the last piece of a missile warhead fired by North Korea was found in Alaska," former Japanese foreign minister Taro Nakayama was quoted as saying in the report. "Washington, as well as Tokyo, has so far underrated Pyongyang’s missile capabilities."

North Korea has made effective use of lying and delaying in order to continue nuclear weapons developement. They openly defy the UN and the IAEA (like anyone would pay attention to them anyway) by breaking the seals on their reactors and openly refine uranium to weapons grade. Diplomacy is not working on the North Koreans any better than it is with the Iranians. Still that does not disuade some appeasers for calling for more diplomacy.

Doves, such as Rep. Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and co-chairman of the Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation, called for a peaceful settlement of the current confrontation, by offering food, energy and other humanitarian aid to the poverty-stricken country, while urging the North to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Rep. Markey also said the North should return to the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the U.S. should make a nonaggression pact with the communist North.

Unbelievable. Only an idiot can believe that North Korea can be begged into abandoning her weapons program.