North Korea - going ballistic again ?

From Jane's

North Korea - going ballistic again?

04 July 07

Several recent reports emanating from East Asia have suggested that North Korea is preparing for a ballistic missile test exercise. These reports further speculate that the upcoming test may occur on 4 July, the anniversary of its wide-ranging July 2006 missile test. However, these reports have not been confirmed by sources within Japan, South Korea or the US.

The most significant ballistic missile development since the 1998 launch of the Paektusan space launch vehicle has been the July 2006 test. On 5 July (4 July and Independence Day in the US), North Korea conducted its largest and most comprehensive ballistic missile test to date, launching seven ballistic missiles - one Taepodong-2 and six Scud C/ER and Nodong missiles. While the majority of the systems were launched from transporter erector launchers in the Kittaeryong area of Kangwon Province, the long-awaited Taepodong-2 was launched from the Musudanni Missile Launch Facility on the northeast coast. Shortly after a successful lift-off there was a catastrophic failure of the first stage, which resulted in the system's destruction.

While the 2006 test demonstrated the viability and reliability of North Korea's Scud- and Nodong-class systems, it left open the status of the three ballistic missile systems that the Korean People's Army (KPA) recently placed, or is placing, into service. These are the KN-02 short range ballistic missile (a variant of the Soviet 9K79 Tochka/SS-21 SCARAB); the Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) (a variant of the Soviet R-27/SS-N-6 SERB); and the Taepodong-2 intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM)/SLV. All three systems require, even by KPA standards, further developmental testing to validate their designs.