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Nuke fears force South Korea to go for arms build up
Post North Korea's nuke tests,
South Korea considers arming itself.
BY OUR POLITICS CORRESPONDENT
October 24, 2006
If North Korea is so concerned about national security, why shouldn’t we too? South Korea’s fear may have translated into a possible arms race in the Korean region.
Considering that Japanese public
opinion too is shifting in favour of a
more capable military and nuclear
tests, this is a worrying development
for the international community.
Days after North Korea tested nukes, South Korea has developed a longer-range cruise missile that can hit targets deep in North Korea and beyond.
According to reports from Seoul, the new cruise missile boasts of a range of 1,000 km. This means it could reach all of North Korea and some parts of China, Japan and Russia.
Seoul has tested the missile and it was successful in hitting within 5 meters (yards) of its target, reports said.
Following this, South Korean top bosses
have now decided to proceed on developing a cruise missile with a range of 1,500 km, it is learnt.
Quite naturally, the South Korean Defence Ministry has declined to comment on the reports, and is said to have referred reporters’ questions to the government-operated Defense Acquisition Programme Administration that oversees the Agency for Defense Development, the main Government agency developing weapons. No confirmation or denial was forthcoming from this department too. There had been earlier reports that said that South Korea was seeking to develop cruise-missile technology for quite some time now.
The North Korean nuclear tests seem to have perturbed its southern neighbour. The 1950-53 battle between the two had ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, which points to the fact that the two nations are technically still at war.
Now with North Korea’s nuke tests and South Korea’s cruise missile tests, the international community is left wondering if the tension is slowly and steadily building up yet again.
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