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N Korean missiles 'could threaten US'
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John Henry
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Aug 12, 2004 21:14 PDT
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NORTH KOREAN HYBRID MISSILES 'COULD THREATEN US'
4 August 2004
NewScientist.com news service
Ballistic missiles capable of striking the US mainland are being developed
by North Korea from decommissioned Soviet hardware, according to a UK
military journal.
The report in Jane's Defence Weekly suggests North Korea has modified
technology used in old Soviet submarines to construct both land and
sea-based ballistic missile systems capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
A sea-based missile system would enable North Korea to threaten mainland US
for the first time. It would also place the nation alongside the US, UK,
France, China and Russia in having such a strategic threat.
North Korea is currently developing another missile system named Taepodong.
In 1998, it tested a Taepodong-1 rocket by firing it over Japan and in
January 2003, the director of the CIA warned that the second generation
missile, Taepodong-2, could feasibly reach the US.
But these missiles remain at an early stage of development and testing. So
modifying older Soviet missile technology could provide a short cut to
greater missile capabilities.
Asian intelligence
Joseph Bermudez, a special correspondent who wrote the article for Jane's
Defence Weekly, says: "Most of the information is in the public domain, but
intelligence sources in Asia provided more information."
These sources claim North Korea has constructed ballistic missile systems
based on the R-21 and R-27 missile systems used by the Soviet Navy during
the 1960s.
North Korea is said to have obtained designs and components for R-27s in
the early 1990s. The single-stage liquid-fuel missiles are 9.6 metres in
length and 1.5 metres in diameter. Military personnel with expertise in
constructing R-27s also travelled to North Korea during the same period,
according to the report.
North Korea is further said to have obtained missile hardware from 12
decommissioned Foxtrot-class and Gold-II class Soviet submarines it bought.
These submarines included launch tubes and stabilising systems from the
Soviet R-21 ballistic missile systems.
Experts say it would be well within North Korea's technical capabilities to
combine the R-21 and R-27 technologies to build its own missile systems.
According to the Jane's report, North Korea is developing a land-based
system with a range of up to 4000 km and a sea-based system with range of
2500 km.
Fighting ships
Commenting on the sea-based system, Stephen Saunders, editor of another
Jane's publication Jane's Fighting Ships, told New Scientist that it would
be much more likely to involve surface ships than submarines.
"Purely from a technical point of view, using surface ships would appear to
be the way ahead," he said, as building a new submarine or modifying an
existing one to incorporate such a missile system would be extremely difficult.
Bhupendra Jasani, at the Department of War Studies at Kings College London
in the UK, notes two cautionary points. Firstly, the rockets use liquid
fuel, meaning they could not be safely kept ready for deployment. Also,
there is little hard evidence that North Korea has developed or tested
nuclear warheads that could be fitted to such missiles.
Western powers remain concerned about North Korea's military capabilities
and, in particular, the nation's nuclear programme. But Jasani claims
information about North Korea's missile program can often be traced to US
government's efforts to garner support for a missile defence system.
However, Bermudez, points out that the planned US defence system is
designed to focus on a fixed-location threat and could be less effective
against mobile sea-based missiles. "[This information] could also be used
by those who oppose the system," he told New Scientist.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996242
http://prophecy.LandmarkBibleBaptist.net
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The Beginning Of Sorrows :
False Christs, War, Famine, Pestilence, Earthquakes
The Word of God says in Matthew 24:3-8:
"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him
privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be
the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and
said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in
my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of
wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things
must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and
pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning
of sorrows."
Here the Lord Jesus Christ listed five specific signs that point to His
return and of the end of the world as we know it. He called them "the
beginning of sorrows." They are: 1) false Christs, 2) wars and rumours of
wars, 3) famines, 4) pestilences, and 5) earthquakes.
The word "sorrows" here has to do with the sorrows of a woman with birth
pangs. The same Greek word is translated differently in I Thessalonians
5:3. There it says: "as travail upon a woman with child." The words
"travail" and "sorrows" are translated from the same Greek word. As the
time of a woman's delivery draws near her pains become more and more
frequent. Likewise all the signs that the Lord gave in Matthew 24:3-8.
The Lord said that "all these are the beginning of sorrows". In other words
all five of the things that the Lord listed must be increasing
simultaneously to qualify as a fulfillment. This is the key to the prophecy
and all five are now increasing.
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