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Staff Reporter
South Korea has developed a cruise missile with a range of 1,000 kilometers that can reach as far as Beijing and Tokyo, as well as hit any target in North Korea, a report said Tuesday.
``The Army's missile command possesses the cruise missile with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers. That missile is an upgraded variant of the Hyunmoo missile,'' a military source was quoted by Yonhap News Agency as saying.
The Hyunmoo is a ballistic missile, developed by the state-run Agency for Defense Development (ADD), with a range of 180-300 kilometers.
The source, however, declined to comment on whether or not the indigenous cruise missile has been deployed in the field or not, it reported.
On Monday, Maj. Gen. Jung In-koo, chief of the Army's Guided Missile Command, hinted that his command is deploying the cruise missile, saying it is powered by liquid fuel.
Last year, a government official revealed that the military successfully tested the cruise missile. The missile can hit targets with a margin of error of plus or minus five meters aided by a Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) system, he said on condition of anonymity.
The Navy's KDX-III Aegis-equipped destroyers will carry the missiles, the official said, adding the ADD was also developing cruise missiles with a range of 1,500 kilometers.
The Navy launched its first 7,600-ton Aegis destroyer, ``Sejong the Great,'' in May, taking a big step toward developing a blue-water naval force. Two more Aegis destroyers will be commissioned in 2010 and 2012.
Reports said the military already has an advanced ship-to-surface ``Chonryong'' cruise missile with a range of 500 kilometers.
South Korea has been reluctant to disclose the development of the cruise missiles so as not to provoke tensions with China and Japan.
Under the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), South Korea is only allowed to build ballistic missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers and a 500 kilogram maximum payload. But the MTCR only applies to high-velocity, free flight ballistic missiles, excluding the slower, surface-skimming cruise weapons.
The MTCR is an informal and voluntary association of countries which share the goal of non-proliferation of unmanned delivery systems for weapons of mass destruction, and seek to coordinate national export licensing efforts to prevent their proliferation.
The cruise missile, dubbed a ``flying bomb,'' is a guided missile which uses a lifting wing and most often a jet propulsion system to allow sustained flight. The self-navigating cruise missile travels at supersonic or high subsonic speeds. It flies in a non-ballistic very low altitude trajectory to avoid radar detection.
Currently, nations such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Israel, possess long-range cruise missiles with a range of more than 500 kilometers.
Pyongyang is believed to have more than 600 Scud and Rodong missiles that can cover South Korea and Japan. The Scuds, or Russian R-11 series missiles, have a range of 130-700 kilometers.
The latest version of the Rodong missile, a further development of the Scud, has an estimated 2,000-kilometer range.
gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr
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