South Korea has developed a longer-range cruise missile capable of hitting nuclear or military sites in North Korea, a report said yesterday.
The state-run Agency for Defense Development has begun manufacturing the ground-to-ground Hyunmu-3C with a range of up to 1,500km, Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified defense official as saying.
The Hyunmu-3C missile would also be able to reach parts of China, Japan and Russia. The previous version of the Hyunmu had a range of only 1,000km. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
Under an agreement with the US, which has 28,500 troops stationed in the country and provides a nuclear “umbrella,” Seoul limits its ballistic missiles to a maximum range of 300km. However, it is allowed to extend the range of its terrain-hugging cruise missiles as long as the payload stays under 500kg.
South Korea has pushed for longer-range weaponry to counter the threat posed by hundreds of North Korean ballistic missiles.
The North has about 600 Scud missiles capable of hitting targets in South Korea. It also has another 200 Rodong-1 missiles that could reach Tokyo. In addition the North has test-launched intercontinental Taepodong missiles three times.
The two nations have remained technically at war since their 1950-1953 conflict ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Tensions have risen since the South and the US, citing the findings of a multinational investigation, accused the North of torpedoing a South Korean warship near the tense sea border in March.
The North angrily denies involvement and says a UN Security Council statement on July 9 — which condemned the attack without specifying the culprit — exoneratres it.
After the UN statement the North reiterated its conditional willingness to return to stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
In a weekly newsletter Seoul’s unification ministry which handles cross-border ties said the North seems willing to “turn the critical mood around through active dialogue” following the UN statement, which Pyongyang claimed as a diplomatic victory.
The South says its neighbor must first apologize for the attack on the ship which cost 46 lives and punish those responsible.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS