Posted by
Team Turk on Friday, October 13, 2006 3:16:19 PM
From United Press International:
Experts have said North Korea's likely next step after developing a nuclear weapon is to create a means of missile transport for the warheads.
Kim Tae-woo, a senior analyst with the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul, said the North's medium-range Rodong and longer-range Taepodong missiles could eventually be converted to carry nuclear weapons, the Voice of America reported Friday.
Kim said a warhead would need to weigh less than 2,200 pounds to be placed on a Taepodong and less than 1,102 pounds to fit on a Rodong.
Daniel Pinkston, a Korea specialist and East Asia Director at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif., told Voice of America that mounting a nuclear weapon on a missile is a complex process. He said most experts believe North Korea's nuclear weapons to be large and basic.
"You have to think about ... integrating that (weapon's) design with the missile," he said. "You can't just stick anything on top of it, right? It's just like putting a big flatbed truck and weld it on top of the missile, it's not going to fly."