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South Korea is pushing to finish its development of ballistic missiles with a range of 800 kilometers by 2017 to deploy them against North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile capacities, officials said Thursday.
"The Agency for Defense Development has proposed the year 2017 as the time frame for the extension of its ballistic missiles' range in a five-year development plan," one government official said, referring to the defense development agency's road map under the Park Geun-hye administration.
With the extension plan, the maximum range of the South Korean military's ballistic missiles will be elongated from the current 500 km to 800 km, another official said.
The military is "aiming at completing the development of the 800-km ballistic missiles by 2017 and deploying them for combat posture," the official added.
Commenting on the push, other military officials indicated the development would mean South Korea will be able to hit any place in North Korea from any point of its choosing in the country.
South Korea is currently equipped with the ballistic missile Hyunmoo-2B, which has the longest range of 500 km and successfully went through a test-firing in early June.
As North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile capacities have fast advanced, South Korea and the United States revised the ballistic missile guidelines on the South in 2012, allowing Seoul to extend the maximum allowable missile range to 800 km from the previous limit of 300 km. (Yonhap)
