North’s air cargo: missiles

North Korea has continued to export its missiles to a frequent buyer, Iran, South Korea and U.S. intelligence sources said yesterday. But the shipments are now going by air; the officials believe that the North switched to air shipments because one of its ships loaded with missiles was intercepted on its way to Yemen in December.
The new intelligence was apparently one of the reasons for the timing of the meeting last week in Spain, led by the United States, to discuss with other countries ways to cut off the proliferation of mass weapons.
The intelligence officials said the United States spotted Iran’s IL-76 Russian-made cargo aircraft leaving Sunan Airport in Pyeongyang on six occasions since April. Although the cargo was in containers, the officials said, they have concluded that the payload was disassembled Rodong missiles, the same type that were sold to Pakistan in 1998. The containers were too small, the sources said, for less-effective Scud missiles.
The Rodong missile has a range of 1,300 kilometers (800 miles). In 1987 and 1991, Iran imported North Korean-built Scuds.
“The Iranian cargo planes that took off from Sunan Airport flew over China and central Asian countries,” an intelligence source said. “The planes headed directly to Iran.”
The source also noted the frequency of the trips by the Iranian aircraft. “Until last year, Iran’s airplanes visited about twice a year at most,” he said.
Another intelligence source said, “Washington is trying to come up with measures to contain the North’s missile sales but avoid the international law dispute that broke out at the time of the interception of the North Korean ship, the Sosan.”
The United States has vowed publicly to try to stop North Korea’s exports of missiles and weapons of mass destruction. President George W. Bush proposed a “proliferation security initiative” to stop trade in weapons of mass destruction when he visited Poland on May 31. Since then, Washington has continued to emphasize the need for legal measures to contain weapons exports by the North.
The G-8 summit in France, the proliferation security initiative meeting in Spain and the trilateral meeting with Seoul and Tokyo, all held this month, were marked by strong U.S. comments about the necessity of blocking further North Korean weapons exports.
“North Korea has long argued that there are no legal grounds to stop its missile sales, but the United States is determined to push the containment of North Korea,” a Seoul official said on the condition of anonymity. “North Korea-U.S. relations may worsen further because of the proliferation security initiative.”
North Korea has a long history of exporting missiles; U.S.-Spanish joint operations led to the interception and search of the North Korean ship Sosan but raised concerns in the international community. Japan arrested a businessman Thursday for alleged exports of equipment that could help the North develop missiles.

by Lee Chul-hee