“North Completed Deployment of 200 Ballistic Missiles Targeting Japan”

The U.S. has recently told the Japanese government that North Korea finished deploying about 200 “Rodong” ballistic missiles targeting Japan, according to an article on July 13 in Nihon Keizai Shimbun, citing a Japanese government official.

The newspaper claimed that the Japanese government received intelligence from the U.S. that the North has small-sized warheads that can be loaded onto ballistic missiles,.

The “Rodong” missiles, with the range of 1,300km, are deployed along the eastern coast of the North, potentially putting the entire country of Japan at risk.

Shigeru Ishiba, head of the Japanese Defense Agency, recently said of the accuracy of the “Rodong” missiles, “If the North fires 100 missiles within the range of 2.5 km of the target, half of them will be direct hits.”

parkwj@donga.com