Since its botched rocket launch in April, North Korea has been upgrading its missile technology with assistance from foreign countries reportedly including Iran.

Pyongyang has invited foreign experts for technological assistance to fix defects responsible for its failure in April, government sources told the local media.

Since this summer, a few Iranian rocket technicians have reportedly stayed in the North to help prepare for a new long-range rocket launch slated for Dec. 10-22.

Though the communist state has made strides in missile technology, experts say that it has yet to secure key technology required to control the speed and direction of a long-range rocket following its lift-off.

Seoul officials presume that Iranian experts might have helped the North gain the much-needed technology.

It is said that Tehran and Pyongyang, both under international sanctions for their controversial nuclear programs, have cooperated on missile development for several decades.

Iran is known to have better technology in terms of the development of long-range rockets including inter-continental ballistic missiles while the North is a little ahead of Iran in terms of technology to develop nuclear arms and short- and mid-range missiles.

In February, Iran launched the Navid satellite into orbit, showing off its advanced rocket technology. The North conducted what it calls satellite launches four times, in 1998, 2006, 2009 and this April, all of which ended in failure.

Other than Iran, the North appears to be striving to secure technological help from experts in Ukraine and other countries.

“There have been some movements detected of North Korea trying to overcome its technological problems with overseas help including from Ukraine. Recently, there was an unidentified foreign missile expert who secretly entered the North,” a government source was quoted as saying by the media.

In July, two North Korean agents were slapped with jail terms in Ukraine for attempting to steal secret documents related to technology to develop rocket engines, fuel supply mechanism and liquid-fuel technology.

Ukraine is the country where major missile production facilities for the former Soviet Union were concentrated.

Experts say that with all these efforts for missile development, Pyongyang may have made much technological progress.

“If it has tested the rocket engine enough and secured the credibility of the rocket performance, I guess that a successful launch could be possible,” said Kim Kyung-min, a political science professor at Hanyang University.

“But I don’t see it as a high-quality rocket. But the fact that it can indigenously develop the first stage of the multiple-stage rocket shows it has made much headway, considering the South still relies on foreign assistance for the first-stage rocket.”

Kim added that the North appears to be “hastening” another rocket launch considering that it is timed to occur soon after or before the Dec. 19 presidential election in South Korea.

The two Koreas have significant missile gaps, though they will be narrowed as Seoul and Washington have agreed to revise a guideline that had banned the South from developing ballistic missiles with a range of more than 300 km.

North Korea succeeded in test-firing a Rodong ballistic missile with a range of 1,300 km in 1993. It has already deployed its longest-range ballistic Musudan missile with a range of 3,000-4,000 km since 2007. The Musudan, in theory, brings Guam, a key U.S. strategic base in the Asia-Pacific region, within its range.

The Taepodong-2 missile is the North’s longest missile under development. It is presumed to have a range of more than 6,700 km, enough to hit parts of Alaska, but still short of reaching the U.S. mainland. The missile’s tests are believed to have failed.


By Song Sang-ho
(sshluck@heraldcorp.com)