South Korea tests long-range ballistic missile

South Korea successfully test-fired its first ballistic missile with a range far enough to hit any part of North Korea, the country's defence ministry officials said yesterday.

The government released a photograph of a missile being fired from a tube mounted on what appeared to be a vehicle, suggesting that the model tested was a prototype for a mobile missile system.

South Korea has been developing a new ballistic missile since the United States agreed in 2012 to allow it to extend the range of those arms up to 800km, enough to reach any target in North Korea but not to threaten China or Japan.

Until then, mutually agreed guidelines had barred South Korea from deploying ballistic missiles with a range of more than 300km and a payload of more than 500kg.

A defence ministry spokesman, citing ministry policy, declined to reveal the range and payload of the missiles tested, except to say they had a range sufficient to hit anywhere in North Korea. South Korea’s national news agency, Yonhap, said one or more of the missiles would be deployed as early as this year.

North Korea has an arsenal of ballistic missiles that can reach all of South Korea and Japan, the two major allies of the US in the region.

Fears of its missile capacity have grown since it claimed in May that it had successfully test-fired a missile from a submarine. – (New York Times)