| North Korea assembling longest-range missile-paper |
| Friday, February 13, 2009 |
By Jon Herskovitz
Reuters
North Korea has been assembling its longest-range missile at an east coast launch base and could test-fire the rocket by the end of this month at the earliest, a leading South Korean daily reported on Friday.
South Korean and U.S. officials have warned prickly North Korea not to launch its Taepodong-2 missile, which is supposed to eventually be able to hit Alaska but has never successfully flown. It blew apart seconds after it was last tested in 2006.
North Korea recently transported the first and second stage of the Taepodong-2 to its missile base on a special train and has been assembling the pieces at an indoor facility to prevent spy satellites from watching, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported intelligence sources as saying.
"We assume that they are currently assembling the first and second-stage rockets," the paper, which is South Korea's largest, reported a South Korean government official as saying.
The missile, thought to be about 36 metres (118 ft) tall, needs to be positioned vertically, sent to a launch pad and fuelled. These operations can be viewed by U.S. spy satellites, which can give the outside world a warning several days in advance that a launch is imminent, it said. [ID:nSEO310845]
more... |
posted by citizen jerk @ 6:52 AM   |
|
|
|
Seed Newsvine
