North Korean leader ‘has discussed plan’ to fire missiles at Guam
senior foreign correspondent
KIM JONG-UN, North Korea’s leader has been briefed on a plan to fire missiles towards the US territory of Guam, home to American air and naval bases, Pyongyang’s state media said last night.
Mr Kim “examined the plan for a long time” and “discussed it” with commanding officers yesterday during his inspection of the command of the Strategic Force in charge of the North’s missile units, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The state-run news agency said Mr Kim would watch the actions of the United States for a while longer before making a decision.
“The United States, which was the first to bring numerous strategic nuclear equipment near us, should first make the right decision and show through actions if they wish to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula and prevent a dangerous military clash,” Mr Kim was quoted as saying.
The briefings were disclosed as a report claimed long-range missiles tested by North Korea were powered by engines manufactured in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government denied supplying Pyongyang with equipment after the report yesterday led to speculation the technology had come from corrupt staff or managers at the Yuzhmash missile factory in Dnipro, which once produced inter-continental ballistic missiles for the Soviet arsenal.
Oleksander Turchynov, chairman of Ukraine’s Security and Defence Council, said: “This information is not based on any grounds, provocative by its content, and most likely provoked by Russian secret services to cover their own crimes.”
He added: “Ukraine has always adhered to all its international commitments, therefore, Ukrainian defence and aerospace complex did not supply weapons and military technology to North Korea,” the council said in a statement.
North Korea tested two new longrange missiles, the Hwasong 12 and the Hwasong 14, in May and July this year.
Michael Elleman, a missile engineer and analyst for the International Institute of Strategic Studies, said in the report published yesterday that two new missiles appeared to be powered by a modified version of the RD-250 engine. The RD-250 was designed and built by Yuzhmash, and Energomash, a Russian rocket building company, for use in Cold War-era nuclear missiles.
Russia bought the engine from Yuzhmash for use in Tsiklon-2 satellitecarrying rockets until at least 2007. A standard RD-250 engine has two fuel chambers. The versions apparently powering the North Korea missiles in May and July had one fuel chamber. Mr Elleman told The Daily Telegraph that he stands by his analysis that North Korean engineers could not have produced that type of engine.
“The only people who can modify it easily are people at Yuzhmash or Energomash. I talked to people who have visited Yuzhmash recently and they confirmed there is a single chamber version like those seen in the North Korean test launches,” Mr Elleman said. He added he did not think the Ukrainian government knew about any illicit sale.