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| N. Korea says its missiles can strike US mainland Posted: 09 October 2012 0956 hrs
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<tbody> </tbody> SEOUL: North Korea said Tuesday it possessed "strategic rocket forces" capable of striking the US mainland, as it responded to a new US-South Korean deal to extend the range of the South's missile systems. In a bulletin released on the official Korean Central New Agency (KCNA), the spokesman of the National Defence Commission said its "strategic rocket forces had placed not only the US forces in the Korean peninsula but also Japan, Guam and even the US mainland within its target range". On October 7, South Korea announced a deal with the United States to more than double the range of its missile systems to cover the whole of North Korea. The agreement will allow the South to deploy missiles with a range of 800 kilometres up from the current limit of 300 kilometres. South Korea said the purpose of the revision is curbing military provocations by North Korea. The new missile system will bring the whole of North Korea into range, as well as parts of China and Japan. "We are not concealing the fact that (North Korea's) revolutionary military, including strategic rocket forces, has placed not only South Korean enemy forces and US forces in the Korean peninsula but also Japan, Guam and even the US mainland within its target range," the spokesman said. North Korea is known to have an inter-continental ballistic missile in development -- the Taepodong-2 -- but it has never been tested successfully. In April, the North carried out a failed rocket launch in what it said was a bid to put a satellite into orbit. The US and United Nations condemned the launch as a disguised ballistic missile test, saying the rocket was simply a three-stage variant of the Taepodong-2. |
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