Seoul: North Korea has moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast, South Korea's defence minister said on Thursday, but he added that there are no signs that Pyongyang is preparing for a full-scale conflict. The report came hours after North Korea's military warned that it has been authorised to attack the US using "smaller, lighter and diversified" nuclear weapons. It was the North's latest war cry against America in recent weeks. The reference to smaller weapons could be a claim that Pyongyang has improved its nuclear technology. Or it could also be a bluff.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said he did not know the reasons behind the North's missile movement, and that it "could be for testing or drills." He dismissed reports in Japanese media that the missile could be a KN-08, which is believed to be a long-range missile that if operable could hit the United States. Kim told lawmakers at a parliamentary committee meeting that the missile has "considerable range" but not enough to hit the US mainland.
The range he described could refer to a mobile North Korean missile known as the Musudan, believed to have a range of 3,000 kilometres. That would make Japan and South Korea potential targets, along with US bases in both countries, but there are doubts about the missile's accuracy. The Pentagon announced that it will deploy a missile defence system to the US Pacific territory of Guam to strengthen regional protection against a possible attack.
Experts say North Korea has not demonstrated that it has missiles capable of long range or accuracy. Some suspect that long-range missiles unveiled by Pyongyang at a parade last year were actually mock-ups. "From what we know of its existing inventory, North Korea has short- and medium-range missiles that could complicate a situation on the Korean Peninsula (and perhaps reach Japan), but we have not seen any evidence that it has long-range missiles that could strike the continental US, Guam or Hawaii," James Hardy, Asia Pacific editor of IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, wrote in a recent analysis.
Kim Kwan-jin said that if North Korea were preparing for a full-scale conflict, there would be signs including the mobilisation of a number of units, including supply and rear troops, but South Korean military officials have found no such preparations. "(North Korea's recent threats) are rhetorical threats. I believe the odds of a full-scale provocation are small," he said. But he added that North Korea might mount a small-scale provocation such as its 2010 shelling of a South Korean island, an attack that killed four people.
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