Charles R. Smith
Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004

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  The new North Korean missiles are estimated to have a maximum range of 2,400 miles. One version is a land-based, road-mobile, missile and the second version is a submarine or ship-mounted system.

The submarine and ship-mounted version is of special concern in that North Korea and Iran have reportedly worked together on a ship-mounted ballistic missile capable of being deployed near American shores, within easy striking distance to many U.S. cities.

"A pernicious aspect of North Korea's new R-27-based missile is that Pyongyang is able to leap into the second generation of liquid fuels-storable liquid fueled rockets. Now the North Koreans can move out of vulnerable cave-based launch facilities made necessary by their 1940s level SCUD technology and put missiles into silos, submarines or ships," stated Richard Fisher, Vice President of the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

"This will serve to exponentially raise their ability to create future threats, especially when they begin to export to technology to proliferation-prone Pakistan and other terrorist-inclined clients," stated Fisher.

Moscow Approved

The concern is considered very real inside Washington. The Soviet R-27 missile carried a single nuclear warhead. A second version, called the R-27U, could carry three nuclear warheads. Each R-27U warhead had the destructive force of 200,000 tons of TNT, more than enough to destroy a U.S. city.

Janes reports that the technology may have originated from the Russian VP Makeyev Design Bureau in Miass, Chelyabinsk, which developed the Soviet submarine, based R-27 missile. Twenty missile engineers from the bureau were detained by Russia in December 1992 as they were attempting to fly to North Korea.

The missile engineers had reported that they had approval for their travel to North Korea from the Russian Ministry of General Machine Building and the Ministry of Security. The engineers stated that they had been recruited to assist North Korea in developing a space launch vehicle.

Relations between North Korea and the U.S. have been tense since the admission by Pyongyang that it was developing a nuclear bomb. The admission led to six-party talks sponsored by communist China but little progress has been made at the Beijing negotiations.

North Korean MIG-29

However, the military tension between the U.S. and North Korea has been at a peak throughout the year. According to Tokyo Shinbun, a Japanese intelligence aircraft flying in international waters off the coast of North Korea was threatened by a missile attack from a North Korean MiG-29 fighter in March.

According to an official statement made by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JDF), a North Korean MIG-29 fighter engaged and locked its fire-control radar onto an EP-3 Japanese intelligence and electronic warfare aircraft that approached the Korean Peninsula.

The JDF responded by scrambling two F-15J jet fighters to the scene. When the two F-15J fighters arrived the North Korean MiG-29 turned off its targeting radar and left the area.

However, the MiG-29 returned later to lock onto a U.S. RC-135S scout plane that was flying at a lower altitude than the Japanese patrol aircraft. According to the JDF, the North Korean MiG-29 continued to maintain a fire-control radar lock for more than 20 minutes on the U.S. plane.

The Soviet era MiG-29 Fulcrum is the top of the line jet fighter for the North Korean air force. Although, not as advanced as western fighters the MiG is considered to be good dog-fighting machine equipped with long-range and short-range air-to-air missiles.

Migs For Sudan

Yet, the Fulcrum has also been in the news lately. Russia came in for harsh criticism last week from the U.S. State Department when state-owned jet producer MiG delivered 12 MiG-29 Fulcrum jet fighters to Sudan.

According to the Moscow Times, the main MiG assembly plant at Lukhovtsy, south of Moscow, had some 200 MiG-29 fighters on hand when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, most of them ready to ship. The MiG design bureau is in the process of selling off the Soviet hardware to nations like Algeria, Yemen and Sudan.

According to MiG director Valery Torianine, MiG plans to deliver 36 MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter planes this year to foreign buyers, 20 new aircraft and 16 modernized versions.

U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton sharply criticized Moscow for selling the advanced jet fighters to Sudan. The United States currently lists Sudan as a sponsor of international terrorism.

The U.S. and other western powers are pressing Sudan to end its racist war against indigenous black tribes in the Darfur region. Over the past 15 months, Sudanese government-backed Arab janjaweed militia have left at least 50,000 people dead, forced villagers into refugee camps and left some 2 million people without sufficient food and medicine.

Sudan's air force consists mainly of Chinese J-7 jet fighters - copies of the venerable MiG-21 Fishbed, Ukrainian Antonov transport aircraft operating as bombers and Russian made Mil-24 Hind attack helicopters. The addition of the MiG-29 gives Sudan an advanced dog-fighter capable of deterring western powers determined to intervene in Darfur.

Amnesty International has charged that Russia's recent delivery of the Fulcrum jets to Sudan makes Russia "indirectly responsible" for the deaths of civilians in Sudan's Darfur region. According to the human rights group, Sudanese civilians testified that Russian-made MiGs and Ukrainian Antonov transport craft operated by the Sudanese air force bombed them.