U.S.-South Agree to Extend 300-km Missile Range Limit

Home > National > Politics

print dictionary print

U.S.-South Agree to Extend 300-km Missile Range Limit

After five years of tug-of-war, the United States and South Korea agreed on a missile deal Tuesday that would put most of North Korea in range of the South's weapons, officials said.

The breakthrough came after Robert Einhorn, U.S. assistant secretary of state for arms nonproliferation, and Song Min-soon, director general of the foreign ministry's North American affairs section, held talks at the U.S. State Department.

The agreement sealed tentative accords in previous talks. Now Seoul and Washington have agreed that South Korea can produce and deploy missiles with a 300-kilometer range and a 500-kilogram warhead and build missiles with a range of up to 500 kilometers for research purposes.

Until now, South Korea was forbidden to develop missiles with a range longer than 180 kilometers under an agreement with the United States in 1979.

South Korea has sought to increase its missile range since 1995 to meet what it described as its "security needs."

Last year, during a meeting with President Bill Clinton, President Kim Dae-jung asked that the range of Korea's missiles be boosted to 500 kilometers.

"As most of the issues concerning extending the missiles have been agreed in principle in the previous talks, this time the talks mainly concentrated on Seoul's presentation of a 'voluntary restraint letter' on missile range to Washington," said a source, who declined to be named.

The source said the two sides are likely to agree to Seoul's presenting a "voluntary restraint letter" on its missile range rather than signing a memorandum of understanding, wary that the memorandum could spark controversy over violation of sovereignty.

Analysts hailed the extension of missile range and said the action is unlikely to have an effect on the current warming relations between the two Koreas.

"The extension of missile range to 300 kilometers is clearly in accordance with the international standard and therefore we have gained what rightfully belong to us. With the North possessing Scud missiles, we hope that the extension of the missile range can be a stepping stone in reducing armament," Yun Duk-min, a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, told the JoongAng Ilbo English Edition.

"I don't think this will deal a blow to the current North-South relations," he added.

The agreement is also expected to encourage the United States to support South Korea's entry into the Missile Technology Control Regime, an agreement among 32 countries to allow development of missiles up to a maximum range of 300 kilometers.

Membership in this group also enables countries to exchange technology about space development.

Despite the thaw in relations, Seoul and Pyongyang remain technically at war since the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with no formal peace pact. North Korea shocked the world when it test-fired over Japan in 1998 a rocket that was suspected of being easily converted into use as a long-range offensive missile.

Meanwhile, South Korea and the United States began two days of talks Tuesday aimed at revising the Status of Forces Agreement, which governs U.S. troops stationed in the South.

Mr. Song, the chief delegate for the U.S.-South Korea missile talks, also heads those talks. He said that criminal jurisdiction, environment and labor will be covered in the talks.


by Kim Jin/Lee Soo-jeon

Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)