weapons of mass destruction... no, really!!

just read this over at yahoo. nice.

New N. Korean Missiles Said to Threaten U.S.

By Mark Trevelyan

BERLIN (Reuters) - North Korea (news - web sites) is deploying new land- and sea-based ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads and may have sufficient range to hit the United States, according to the authoritative Jane's Defense Weekly.

In an article due to appear Wednesday, Jane's said the two new systems appeared to be based on a decommissioned Soviet submarine-launched ballistic missile, the R-27.

It said communist North Korea had acquired the know-how during the 1990s from Russian missile specialists and by buying 12 former Soviet submarines which had been sold for scrap metal but retained key elements of their missile launch systems.

Jane's, which did not specify its sources, said the sea-based missile was potentially the more threatening of the two new weapons systems.

"It would fundamentally alter the missile threat posed by the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and could finally provide its leadership with something that it has long sought to obtain -- the ability to directly threaten the continental U.S.," the weekly said.


posted by scott 10:48 AM