South Korea flexes missile power after North test

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SEOUL: Two days after North Korea’s nuclear test, South Korea signalled yesterday the deployment of a new cruise missile capable of a precision strike on members of Pyongyang’s high command.

The defence ministry called in reporters for a special video presentation of the recently deployed missile being fired from a warship and a submarine.

“The cruise missile unveiled today is a precision-guided weapon that can identify and strike the office window of the North’s command headquarters,” ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok told reporters.

It has ‘deadly destructive power’ that could “restrain the enemy headquarters’ activities” during wartime, Kim said.

South Korea’s military has been on a heightened state of alert since Pyongyang first threatened the nuclear test which was eventually conducted on Tuesday.

It was the North’s third test, following previous detonations in 2006 and 2009, and seismic data suggested it was significantly more powerful.

The test appears to have galvanised South Korea into flexing its military muscle and highlighting its own technological prowess.

“With this missile, we could hit any facility, equipment or individual target in the North anywhere, at any time of our choosing,” army Major General Ryu Young-Jeo said of the cruise missile.

On Wednesday, South Korea said it would accelerate the development of longer-range ballistic missiles that could also cover the whole of North Korea.

In October last year, South Korea reached a deal with the United States to almost triple the range of its ballistic missile systems – with Seoul arguing it needed an upgrade to counter the North’s own missile development.

The United States has 28,500 troops in South Korea and guarantees a nuclear ‘umbrella’ to deter attacks. In return, Seoul accepts limits on its ballistic missile capabilities.

The defence ministry also said it would speed up the deployment of a ‘kill chain’ system capable of detecting, targeting and destroying North Korean missiles. Meanwhile, South Korean nuclear experts said yesterday they had been unable to detect any radioactive
fallout from North Korea’s nuclear test, confounding efforts to determine the nature of the device.

South Korean warships and air force planes equipped with highly sensitive detection devices were deployed after Tuesday’s test to try and collect any traces of radioactive fallout.

The South’s state-run Nuclear Safety and Security Commission said it had so far analysed eight atmospheric samples collected on land, sea and air.

“No radioactive isotope has been found yet,” it said in a statement.

Their main target is traces of xenon gases released in the detonation that could be analysed to determine what fissile material was used.

“We are analysing samples and xenon has not been found yet,” the commission statement said.

Experts are keen to discover whether the North switched from plutonium – used in 2006 and 2009 – to a new and self-sustaining nuclear weaponisation programme using highly enriched uranium.

If the underground test was well contained, it is quite possible there would be little or no radioactive seepage into the atmosphere.

And even if some gases did escape, scientists stress there is a large amount of luck involved in collecting them.

No xenon gases w ere detected after the North’s 2009 test.

As well as the military detectors, the commission said there were 122 automated devices across South Korea that were continually capturing and analysing air samples.

The detection effort is running on a very tight deadline. — AFP