NK's Taepodong Missiles Could Be Operational by 2015: LaPorte

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NK's Taepodong Missiles Could Be Operational by 2015: LaPorte

Korea Times | March 11 2005

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) - North Korea could produce long-range missiles capable of hitting the west coast of the United States within the next decade, the chief of U.S. troops in South Korea said Tuesday.

The remarks by Gen. Leon J. LaPorte came a week after North Korea threatened to resume missile tests and demanded the U.S. apologize for referring to the communist state as an ``outpost of tyranny.’’

``The regime's continued development of a three-stage variant of the Taepodong missile, which could be operational within the next decade, could also provide North Korea with the capability to directly target the continental United States or provide the regime's clients with an intercontinental capability that could undermine the stability of other regions,’’ LaPorte told the U.S. Senate's Armed Services Committee.

In 1998, North Korea stunned the region by test-firing a long-range Taepodong-I ballistic missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. The North is believed to be developing longer-range missiles that could strike as far as Alaska and Hawaii.

North Korea declared in 1999 that it would halt missile tests but threatened last Thursday to end the missil moratorium, citing what it called hostile U.S. policy.

``Dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea has been completely blocked since (U.S. President George W.) Bush took office in 2001,’’ the North said in a memorandum. ``As a result, we see no binding force on the missile moratorium.’’

North Korea also announced last month that it is a nuclear power and would stay away from the six-nation talks on its nuclear weapons program. The North took issue with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's designation of the country as one of the world's ``outposts of tyranny.’’

Some U.S. officials believe the North's long-range missiles can be tipped with nuclear warheads or nuclear weapon-sized payloads.

``First of all, they could use them relative to missile technologies and create a situation where they may threaten the entire world,’’ LaPorte told a forum in Seoul last month.

At Tuesday's hearing session, LaPorte also expressed concerns over the North's medium- and long-range missiles that can hit U.S. facilities in the region.

``The North Korean ballistic missile inventory includes over 500 Scud missiles that can deliver conventional or chemical munitions across the entire peninsula and within the region,’’ he said.

The North, Laporte said, also continues to produce and deploy medium-range Rodong missiles capable of striking cities and military bases with the same payloads.

He also cited press reports that the North is preparing to field a new intermediate-range ballistic missile that could reach U.S. facilities in Okinawa, Guam and possibly Alaska.