S. Korea develops cruise missile capable of hitting all targets in N. Korea

-- South Korea has developed a cruise missile capable of striking all strategic targets in North Korea and able to fly as far as Beijing and Tokyo, amid the heightened tension over the North's missile and nuclear weapon tests, government sources said Tuesday.

"We successfully test-fired the missile, and it dropped within a radius of 5 meters of the target," a source said, asking to remain anonymous out of concern that the long-range missile development could provoke Japan and China.

The source said the missile, which has a range of up to 1,000 kilometers, is South Korea's longest-range missile, but it is developing a cruise missile with a range of up to 1,500 kilometers.

In a 1979 accord with the United States, South Korea had been barred from developing or deploying missiles with a firing range of more than 180 kilometers until January 2001, when Seoul obtained U.S. approval to develop missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers. Washington is concerned over an arms race in the region.

The amendment applies only to ballistic missiles with a warhead of less than 500 kilograms, so South Korea has been bent on developing longer-range cruise missiles.

The missile, jointly developed by the military and the state-run Agency for Defense Development, is believed to have the capability of hitting North Korean missile bases entrenched deep in its most distant mountains, the source said.

The Defense Ministry said it could neither confirm nor deny the news. It comes as tensions are still running high on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea performed its first-ever nuclear weapon test earlier this month.

In early July, North Korea defiantly test-fired seven missiles, including a long-range missile believed capable of reaching the U.S., prompting the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution imposing sanctions on the communist country.

North Korea's missile capability is superior to that of South Korea. In 1998, North Korea stunned the region by test-firing a Taepodong-I missile that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean. The North is believed to possess 600 Scud-type missiles with ranges of 300 to 500 kilometers and 100 Rodong missiles with a range of up to 1,300 kilometers.

Seoul, Oct. 24 (Yonhap News)