Isolated North Korea says its rockets can hit U.S. mainland

[Darth Vader]

Isolated North Korea says its rockets can hit U.S. mainland

SEOUL | Mon Oct 8, 2012 11:05pm EDT

(Reuters) - Isolated North Korea has rockets that can hit the U.S. mainland, it said on Tuesday, two days after South Korea struck a deal with the United States to extend the range of its ballistic missiles.

North and South Korea have been technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, and regional powers have for years been trying to rein in the North's nuclear weapons program.

North Korea is believed to be developing a long-range missile with a range of 6,700 km (4,160) miles) or more aimed at hitting the United States, but two recent rocket tests both failed.

Its neighbors fear the North is using rocket launches to perfect technology to build a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the United States.

North Korea's National Defence Commission said in a statement that the North was prepared to counter any U.S. military threats, its KCNA news agency said.

"We do not hide (the fact) that the revolutionary armed forces ... including the strategic rocket forces are keeping within the scope of strike not only the bases of the puppet forces and the U.S. imperialist aggression forces' bases in the inviolable land of Korea, but also Japan, Guam and the U.S. mainland," KCNA said.

South Korea on Sunday unveiled an agreement with the United States that extends the range of its ballistic missiles by more than twice its current limit to 800 km (497 miles) as a deterrent against the North.

North Korea is under heavy U.N. sanctions that have cut off its previously lucrative arms trade and further isolated the state after its failed 2009 missile test drew sharp rebukes, even from its one major ally, China.

The United States has denied it has any intention to strike North Korea. It has more than 20,000 troops stationed in the South in defense of its ally against the North.

In April, under its new leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea again launched a rocket that flew just a few minutes covering a little over 100 km (60 miles) before blowing up over the sea between South Korea and China.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

[Darth Vader]

S Korea to announce US missile deal

By: AFP | October 07, 2012

SEOUL - South Korea plans to announce a new deal with the US aimed at extending the range of its ballistic missiles to cover the whole of N Korea, a report said.

Yonhap news agency quoted a senior govt official as saying the two allies were fine-tuning the agreement.

“We are considering making an announcement as early as tomorrow or early next week,” the unidentified official said.

The report could not be independently confirmed.

The official declined to discuss details but a diplomatic source told Yonhap the agreement would more than double the range of Seoul’s ballistic missiles to 800km, from the current limit of 300km.

It would mean the whole of North Korea would be within reach but the missiles’ maximum payload would reportedly stay at 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds).

The existing deal with Washington, which allows Seoul limited access to US missile technology, is up for renewal at the end of the year.