hankyoreh

2012

By Kang Tae-ho, senior staff writer

North Korea tested improvements to a KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) engine with a 10,000-km firing range on Feb. 11, the day before its nuclear test, government sources said on Feb. 17.

The test was apparently conducted at the rocket launch site in Dongchang Village, North Pyongan province, with the aim of extending the firing range of the KN-08, which has never been test-launched, a source explained.

“It looks like they may begin putting it into combat position once they’ve determined if the engine improvements were successful,” the source said.

This would not be the first engine combustion test for the KN-08, which first appeared last April mounted on an eight-axle mobile launch vehicle at a military parade in Pyongyang to mark the 100th anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s birth. US specialists, including David Albright, founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) and North Korean nuclear and missile program expert, said the country had already done several similar tests. In mid-January, the New York Times reported US intelligence organizations as saying they had detected signs throughout North Korea of the deployment of transporter erector launchers (TELs) capable of carrying the KN-08.

North Korea previously unveiled the intermediate-range Musudan missile on board a six-axle TEL during a military parade in October 2010 for the 65th anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea. Measuring 15 meters in length and 1.5 to 2 meters in diameter, the Musudan is believed to have a range of 4,000 km, which would allow it to strike US military bases in Okinawa and Guam.

Experts said the KN-08, which at 19 meters long, 2 meters across is larger than the Musudan and has two extra axles on its TEL, may have been developed to target the mainland US.

With the Musudan placed into combat position without any test launch, intelligence authorities in South Korea and the US believed the KN-08 could also be positioned without testing.

Bruce E. Bechtol, Jr., a professor and North Korea expert at Angelo State University in Texas, said experts believe the KN-08 may be an improved version of the Musudan.

North Korea may decide to test-launch the Musudan first, he added.

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