'North Korea capable of hitting Seoul with nukes'

By Lee Tae-hoon Song Young-sun, a lawmaker of the National Assembly Defense Committee, said Friday that North Korea’s military is capable of striking South Korea with its nuclear weapons via missile or by dropping them from a “stealth”aircraft. “Pyongyang has yet to secure the technology to hit Hawaii, which is 3,600 kilometers away, or the U.S. mainland with a nuclear warhead,” Song of the minor opposition Future Alliance Hope told The Korea Times. “However, they have already developed numerous Scuds and other types of missiles highly capable of carrying small nuclear warheads and hitting any of South Korea’s major cities.” The North’s missile, known as the BM-25 Musudan, is believed to be able to carry a payload weighing 1 to 1.2 tons and has a range of 3,000-4,000 kilometers, according to a report of the Defense Agency for Technology and Quality. “The heavier the payload, the shorter the range of a missile,” Song said. “But South Koreans should be aware that they are living right next to North Korea.” The second-term lawmaker pointed out that the North may simply drop nuclear bombs on the South using its airplanes, such as the AN-2 Colt and IL-28. The AN-2 is a propeller-driven biplane made mostly of cloth and wood, and the IL-28 is a Cold War-era Soviet ground attack aircraft. According to a 2010 Pentagon report, the AN-2 has “truly lethal potential,” as it gives off virtually no signature on radar, making it difficult to identify in the event of troop infiltration missions. Song claims that the North possesses some 300 AN-2s, which can carry 10 to 15 heavily armed soldiers across the inter-Korean border. It can even land on golf ranges, as it only needs a 250- meter runway. The legislator, however, underlined that Pyongyang would not undertake a major nuclear attack against Seoul as “it would be suicidal for the reclusive regime to do so.” “Ironically, the only reason the North maintains a belligerent attitude against the South is that it wants a security guarantee,” she said. Nam Sung-wook, director of the Institute for National Security Strategy, also forecast Thursday that the Stalinist North would refrain from committing another military provocation until at least February. Nam claims that the North will likely hold off until after the U.S. and China hold a summit in mid-January. On Thursday, the North said it may wage a “sacred” war against the South on the basis of its nuclear deterrent. “The revolutionary armed forces of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) are fully poised to launch a sacred war of justice of Korean style based on our nuclear deterrent at any time necessary to cope with the enemies’ actions,” Kim Young-chun, minister of the People’s Armed Forces, said. Russian experts, however, have raised questions about the North’s capability to detonate a nuclear bomb, according to Russia’s news agency, Itar-Tass. “In most probability, this is a type of blackmail on the part of the North Korean leadership,” a well-informed source in the nuclear power industry was quoted as saying by the agency. “The real question, however, is if North Korea has the capability to set this fuse into action.”

leeth@koreatimes.co.kr