Inside North Korea’s Accelerated Plan to Build a Viable Missile Kim Jong Un has modernized the weapons program, sped test launches and forced Western leaders to worry more about Pyongyang’s intentions than everBy Alastair Gale and Jonathan Cheng

Posted By on May 15th, 2017

https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-is-accelerating-plan-to-land-missiles-in-u-s-1494792608

SEOUL—North Korea’s launch on Sunday of its most-sophisticated missile yet offered new clues into how serious the country is in its nuclear ambitions.

In the past three years, North Korea has launched more major missiles than in the three previous decades combined.

That acceleration is one of the most dramatic signs of leader Kim Jong Un’s push to overhaul the country’s weapons program since he took power in late 2011. He has modernized production of nuclear and missile parts, upgraded the program within the military hierarchy and overtly pampered engineers, forcing Western leaders to worry more about Pyongyang’s intentions than ever before.

 On Sunday, North Korea launched a newly developed intermediate-range missile, its 10th missile firing this year. Mr. Kim attended the test of the nuclear-capable missile and described it as a “perfect weapon system,” according to a state media report. Initial projections from several experts suggested it would be able to reach U.S. military forces in Guam.

Even apparent failed missile launches, like one that blew up within minutes on April 28, are now seen by independent experts as signs of North Korea’s progress. Learning from those failures would move the regime closer to its ultimate goal of mastering a long-range missile that could threaten the U.S. with nuclear attack.

The Threat From North Korea’s Missiles

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For decades, Mr. Kim’s father and grandfather used the country’s missile program to gain leverage in diplomatic talks and revenue from weapon exports. Technological advances came slowly. That changed when Kim Jong Il died and was succeeded by his youngest son, believed to be 33 years old.

The dictator has shown no interest in negotiating with the U.S. about the missile program, and North Korea’s nuclear ambition and skill are advancing much more quickly.

The country is conducting missile tests with the frequency needed to ensure the weapons can be reliably used in conflict. A range of recent breakthroughs has forced the U.S. and its allies to review their missile defenses.

“Kim Jong Un very much wants to reach out and touch the homeland,” Gen. Lori Robinson, head of the U.S. Northern Command, the part of the military responsible for defending the U.S. mainland, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in April.

Tackling the threat could become an early point of tension between U.S. President Donald Trump, who is trying to pressure Pyongyang into changing course, and new South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who favors diplomacy and economic engagement with North Korea.

 In a factory about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, the capital city, dozens of computer-controlled machines, similar to those used by Samsung Electronics Co. to make smartphones, churn out intricate parts that can be used in missiles and nuclear centrifuges, according to photographs released by state media.
In a visit to the same factory in 2013, Mr. Kim angrily demanded that engineers replace old devices for making parts with robots and computer numerical control, a process for high-precision machine tools, according to a state media report at the time. The government has composed songs about CNC machines and put them on postage stamps.

Photos from a return visit by Mr. Kim last August showed CNC machines with bright orange, robotic arms bearing the logo of Swiss engineering company ABB Ltd.

Weapons experts who study satellite images and photos released by North Korea say the newer machines have become ubiquitous in North Korean missile plants. The machines allow faster, more precise manufacturing of parts around the clock, reducing the need to skirt sanctions by importing similar parts. The United Nations bans any imports that could be used in weapons programs.

Weaponry in a military parade in April in Pyongyang to mark the 105th anniversary of the birth of state founder Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of Mr. Kim, included rocket casings that might have been made by the new CNC machines, missile experts say. North Korea also showed off what appeared to be at least one new long-range missile.

“Basically, they can now produce anything [for missiles] that’s made of metal,” says Jeffrey Lewis, a missile specialist at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies in Monterey, Calif.

A U.N. panel that monitors sanctions on North Korea identified Tengzhou Keyongda CNC Machine Tools Co. of China as a supplier of the new CNC machines.

A sales manager at the company who declined to provide his name says it sent machines worth about $40,000 to North Korea through an intermediary company “two or three years ago.” The person says North Korea tried to buy more machines this year, but the company declined “since relations between the two countries are tense.”

An ABB spokesman says the Zurich company doesn’t sell equipment to North Korea but couldn’t rule out the possibility that some products were resold there. CONTINUE AT SITE

 

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