North Korea has developed a new type of Scud missile with improved precision and a longer range capable of striking much of Japan, a South Korean newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The Chosen Ilbo quoted a government source in Seoul as saying the Scud-ER had a range of 1,000 km (621 miles), enough to hit the western part of the main Japanese island of Honshu and beyond. Tokyo is on Honshu.
The source said the new type of missile marked an improvement over the Scud-C that is capable of carrying payloads to targets within 500 km, or anywhere in South Korea.
The reclusive communist state is believed to have one of the world’s most active programs for developing weapons of mass destruction and declared explicitly for the first time last week that it had nuclear weapons.
Pyongyang is locked in a standoff with regional powers over its nuclear ambitions and has said it would not take part in new multilateral talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear weapons programs.
The source was quoted as saying that U.S. spy satellites had spotted activity in the North pointing to the development of the new missile and were pursuing further evidence of its deployment.
'Wouldn't be unusual'
South Korea’s defense ministry could not confirm the report.
“It wouldn’t be unusual at all for anyone to be upgrading an existing missile system,” a ministry official said by telephone.
North Korea deployed the longer-range Rodong missile with a range of 1,300 km in 1998 and shocked the world by test firing the Taepodong-1 missile with a 2,500 km range over Japan the same year.
It is also believed to be developing the Taepodong-2 missile with a range of 6,700 km that could hit Alaska, according to South Korea’s Defense White Paper issued on Feb. 4.
South Korean officials say the North’s nuclear declaration was probably intended to boost its negotiating position in six-way nuclear disarmament talks.
North Korea’s 1.17 million-strong army makes it the most militarized country in the world relative to population.