Missile

["Mike Yared" <mikeyared@hotmail.com>]

What was North Korea's first missile?
Mike

"New details about DPRK's ballistic missile program"
Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy;
Anonymous;
December 1999, Vol.27; Issue:12; Page:3

Abstract:
A recent North Korean (DPRK) defector, Kim Kil-son, has provided inside 
insights into the North Korean ballistic missile program. Kim confirmed that 
the ballistic missile program and the strategic weapons program are 
considered by Kim Jong-il and the elite in Pyongyang to be the key to the 
survival of their Administration against all adversities.
A recent North Korean (DPRK) defector, Mrs Kim Kil-son, 44, has provided 
inside insights into the North Korean ballistic missile program. Mrs Kim 
escaped from the DPRK in 1997 to Manchuria, where she waited for the 
subsequent escape of her husband and daughter. Last January, the entire 
family formally defected to South Korea (ROK). Prior to her defection she 
worked for some 20 years for the internal and highly-classified Publishing 
House of the Second Academy of Natural Sciences, the DPRK's primary 
strategic weapons' development arm. According to Mrs Kim, the Second Academy 
of Natural Sciences [SANS] is placed under the control of the Munitions 
Industry Department of the Workers Party. The Academy's head is Chu 
Kyu-Cl@ang. Under the SANS, there are about 50 institutes responsible for 
the development of various weapons of strategic importance. The Engineering 
Research Institute under SANS is responsible for the development of 
ballistic missiles, and is headed by Kwon Tong-Ha. The key facilities of 
SANS are located somewhere between Yongsong-Dong and Yongch'u-Dong, Yongsong 
District, Pyongyang. It is a highly fortified place, well protected against 
possible air raids by the ROK-US forces. The SANS area is connected to the 
estate of the P'yongs@ng State Academy of Sciences that deals with general 
sciences. "The SANS was built near the Pyongsong State Academy to make the 
SANS look like an ordinary research institute," Mrs Kim explained. The 
DPRK's defense industries come under the jurisdiction of the Second Economy 
Commission that, in turn, is controlled by the Munitions Industry Department 
of the Workers Party of Korea [W`PK's MID]. The WPK's MID controls SANS for 
weapons development separately from the Second Economy Commission, the 
DPRK's dedicated weapons production arm. The Yongbyon and other nuclear 
installations are also controlled by the WPK's MID through a separate arm. 
Most missile related production facilities are concealed as "light electric 
plants" Pyongyang has made special efforts to sustain missile production 
even during a war with the US-ROK. "Since North Korea has dug so many 
underground tunnels, the North Koreans will move a light electric plant from 
one tunnel to another once they suspect its location has become known to the 
ROK-US combined forces," Mrs Kim said. The DPRK's main ballistic missiles 
test facilities are located in Musudan-Ri, Hwadae County, and concealed as 
the "Hwadae Agriculture Experimental Yard" The Yard controls the key 
development and test launch sites known to the West as NoDong-Ri, Hwadae 
County, North Hamgyong Province, and Taepo-Dong, Musudan-Ri, Hwadae County, 
North Hamgyong Province. The DPRK's ballistic missiles are named in the West 
NoDong and TaepoDong after the development and testing sites where they were 
first identified by US intelligence. According to Mrs Kim, these missiles 
are actually parts of a larger single family of ballistic missiles called 
the Hwasong. The name was coined by Kim Jong-II who has been personally 
involved in supervision of the DPRK's ballistic missiles program from the 
very beginning. The first operational ballistic missile developed by the 
DPRK was the Hwasong- 1, essentially a reverse-engineered Soviet SCUD-B. It 
became operational in 1981. The DPRK's upgraded and modified SCUD derivative 
- the NK-SCUD-C - is called the Hwasong-2. The Hwasong-3 and the Hwasong-4 
are further SCUD-derivatives and interim longer-range SSMs. The next fully 
operational SSM is the Hwasong-5 which is known in the West as the NoDong-1. 
The DPRK's designation of the missile known as the TaepoDong- I is the 
Hwasong-6. Mrs Kim pointed out that it was Kim Jong-Il who originated the 
idea of quickly developing a long-range ballistic missile - the TaepoDong- I 
- by placing a SCUD-B and/or NK-SCUD-C on top of a NoDong- 1. "Kim Jong-II 
used to emphasize many times that when either the Hwasong- I or the 
Hwasong-2 is connected to the Hwasong-5, it would become a long-range rocket 
capable of launching a satellite. " The Hwasong-6 test fired in August 1998 
indeed carried a satellite. "It is believed that the North Koreans fired a 
Hwasong-6 rocket with a satellite called Kwangmyongsong-1, not a warhead, in 
its payload area," Mrs Kim noted. Mrs Kim confirmed that the ballistic 
missile program and the strategic weapons program (about which she knows 
very little) are considered by Kim Jong-il and the elite in Pyongyang to be 
the key to the survival of their Administration against all adversities. 
Therefore, she stressed, it is inconceivable that Pyongyang would ever 
abandon its quest for bigger and better strategic weaponry irrespective of 
the cost and the ramifications for North Korea.


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