Pyongyang Develops Long-range Ballistic Missile: U.S.

Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, said that North Korea is continuing to develop Taepodong-2, the long-rang ballistic missile it test fired in 2006.

He testified as a witness before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said that North Korea is developing a new missile by modifying a mid-range ballistic missile thought to have been exported to Iran by Pyongyang.

On July 4, 2006, North Korea test-fired in vain a Taepodong-2 missile deemed to be capable of reaching the main land U.S.

Maples also said “The North Korean military lacks training and equipments but it deploys a large-scale ground force forward. And it has formidable artilleries and mobile ballistic missiles.”

About North Korea’s nuclear capability, National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell, who also appeared as a witness, said “If Pyongyang has sophisticated technologies, it can make 12 nuclear bombs with 50-kilogram plutonium thought to have been extracted. And if not, the number can be lowered to six, which is more likely to be true.

McConnell added that although North Korea denies it has uranium enrichment programs and its proliferation activities, we think it is involved with both. It is not clear if Kim Jong Il decided to make his country nuclear-free as he promised in the six-party talks.”

As to the 2002 intelligence assessment that said North Korea had Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) programs, he explained “Back then we had strong confidence in the intelligence, but now we have mid-level confidence in the assessment because evidence is not as consistent as it did in the first evaluation.”

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