Re: Missile

["Joseph S. Bermudez Jr." <jbermudez@qwest.net>]

Title: Re: Missile

Mike, 

At the unclassified level there is considerable confusion regarding the naming of the DPRK’s ballistic missiles. Defectors have provided considerably different accounts of the DPRK’s naming conventions. I have been told that the Hwasong [Mars] 5 = Scud B and the Hwasong 6 = Scud C. I have also read what Ms. Kim has stated previously (e.g., Hwasong 1 = Scud B .... Hwasong 6 = Taepodong) which is recounted in the article you posted. This is further confused by other defectors who state that the Hwasong 7 = SA-7, and that the DPRK’s ballistic missiles include the Hwasong 1 and 2 as well as the Moksong [Jupiter] 1 and 2. Still another defector identifies the Hwasong 1, 2, and 3 as surface-to-air, surface-to-surface, and air-to-surface missiles respectively. Finally, last year the DPRK officially stated that the missile that launched their first satellite - Kwangmyongsong 1 [Bright Lodestar] - in August 1998 was the Paektu-san 1 [a famous mountain on the DPRK-PRC border] while the US/West calls it  the Taepodong, Taepodong 1, or Taepodong 1 SLV.

I think that we’ll simply have to wait until there is more information, of a reliable nature, before we can really nail up the names. Look how long it took Steve Zaloga to work out the naming and designation details for the Soviet missile programs. BTW his latest book The Kremlin’s Nuclear Sword is great. 

DISCLAIMER: Steve and I have been friends since our high school days. We are also co-authors – with Cookie – of a forthcoming history of the Scud. :-)

Regards,
Joe