North Korea to build new missiles using Soviet design

Tue, 2004-08-03 17:39 —
http://www.russiajournal.com/node/18233

North Korea is deploying new land- and sea-based ballistic missiles apparently to be based on a decomissioned Soviet submarine-launched ballistic missile, the R-27. They can carry nuclear warheads and may have sufficient range to hit the United States, Jane's Defence Weekly said Wednesday.

North Korea is deploying new land- and sea-based ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads and may have sufficient range to hit the United States. Communist Korea had acquired the know-how during the 1990s from Russian missile specialists and by buying 12 former Soviet submarines which had been sold for scrap metal but retained key elements of their missile launch systems, Jane's Defence Weekly said Wednesday.

In an article published Wednesday, Jane's said the two new systems appeared to be based on a decomissioned Soviet submarine-launched ballistic missile, the R-27. Jane's, which did not specify its sources, said the sea-based missile was potentially the more threatening of the two new weapons systems.

"It would fundamentally alter the missile threat posed by the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and could finally provide its leadership with something that it has long sought to obtain – the ability to directly threaten the continental U.S.," the weekly said. Apart from targeting the United States, South Korea or Japan, cash-strapped North Korea might seek to sell the technology to countries that have bought its missiles in the past, with Iran a prime candidate, the article added.

Ian Kemp, news editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, said North Korea would only spend the money and effort on developing such missiles if it intended to fit them with nuclear warheads. "It's pretty certain the North Koreans would not be developing these unless they were intended for weapons of mass destruction warheads, and the nuclear warhead is far and away the most potent of those," he told Reuters.

North Korea pulled out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in January 2003 and is locked in long-running crisis talks with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea over terms for scrapping its atomic weapons programme. The extent of that programme remains unclear, although North Korea's deputy foreign minister was quoted as telling a senior U.S. official last year that Pyongyang possessed nuclear weapons.

Jane's said the new land-based system had an estimated range of 2,500 to 4,000 km (1,560 to 2,500 miles), and the sea-based system, launchable from a submarine or a ship, had a range of at least 2,500 km. "If you can get a missile aboard a warship, in particular aboard a submarine...you can move your submarine to strike at targets such as Hawaii or the United States, just as examples. Whereas it would be much more difficult to actually develop a ground-launched missile to achieve that sort of a range," Kemp said.

Until now only the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China have been known to possess submarine-launched nuclear weapons, although there has been speculation that Israel has a similar capability. Jane's said North Korea appeared to have acquired the R-27 technology from Russian missile experts based in the Urals city of Chelyabinsk. It said one such group was detained in 1992 when about to fly to North Korea, but others visited later.

It said Pyongyang was also helped by the purchase, through a Japanese trading company, of 12 decommissioned Russian Foxtrot-class and Golf II-class submarines which were sold for scrap in 1993. It said the missiles and electronic firing systems had been removed, but the vessels retained their launch tubes and stabilisation sub-systems.

“실미도 대원 31명 명단 있다”

http://www.hani.co.kr/section-005000000/2004/02/005000000200402171958965.html

‘실미도 부대’로 불리는 공군 684부대 훈련병 31명의 명단이 처음으로 확인됐다.
김성호 의원(열린우리당)은 “지난 7일 국방부의 대면보고를 받는 자리에서 실미도 훈련병들의 이름이 포함된 ‘8·23 난동사건 상황일지’를 확인했다”고 17일 밝혔다.

이 문건에는 훈련병 31명의 이름과 나이, 숨진 장소 등이 적혀 있으며, 사건이 일어난 이틀 뒤인 1971년 8월25일 공군작전상황실이 만든 것이라고 김 의원은 전했다.

지금까지는 훈련병 31명 가운데 충북 옥천에서 한꺼번에 행방불명된 청년 7명이 모두 실미도 부대에 입대한 사실이 공식확인됐고, 사형당한 4명 가운데 1명의 유가족이 신원확인 요청을 제기한 상태로, 부대원 전원의 명단 존재 사실이 밝혀진 것은 이번이 처음이다.

하지만 김 의원은 “옥천 실종자 7명 가운데 김병염·장명기 등 2명의 이름은 이 명단에 포함돼 있지 않았는데 국방부가 이들의 명단을 확인했다고 발표한 경위가 의문”이라며 “국방부가 훈련병 모두에 대해 가족들한테 신원을 통보하고 주검을 묻은 장소를 공개해야 한다”고 지적했다.

이에 대해 국방부는 “이름 한 글자가 틀리다거나, 부대에서 다른 이름으로 불린 경우 등 실명과 일치하지 않는 경우가 있을 수 있어 여러 자료를 토대로 최대한 신원을 확인중”이라며 “명단 공개 여부는 결정된 바 없다”고 밝혔다.

한편, 이 문건에는 훈련과정에서 사망한 7명에 대해 ‘익사 2명, 도주중 체포돼 즉결처분 2명, 자살 3명’이라고 기록돼 있는 것으로 밝혀졌다. 지금까지는 익사 1명, 즉결처분 6명으로 알려져 왔다. 이지은 기자 jieuny@hani.co.kr

Military Admits `Silmido Unit' for First Time

http://web.archive.org/web/20060513162442/http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200402/kt2004020617442611960.htm
By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter

With hundreds of thousands of South Koreans enthused by the recently released domestic film ``Silmido,’’ military authorities on Friday confirmed for the first time the existence of ``Unit 684,’’ a secret unit of agents who were trained for the assassination of then-North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in late 1960s.

The Defense Ministry said the unit in question is a detachment of the ROK Air Force’s Squadron 2325, which recruited 31 civilians for special missions on April 1, 1968.

``Seven of them died in training, 20 were killed in a rebellion and the four survivors were put to death after military trial,’’ ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Nam Dae-youn said in a press briefing.

Nam added the ministry found five out of the seven men from a village of Okchon, North Chungchong Province, who altogether went missing around the time, had identical names with five of the 31 unit members. ``We cannot confirm if the five are the same people that were members of the unit, because most of records were destroyed. We will have to check further,’’ he said.

Keen public attention was drawn to Unit 684 and the Silmido incident as a movie, portraying the fate of 31 unit members in rebellion, was released late last year.

The unit was launched in retaliation against a North Korean attempt to assassinate South Korean president Park Chung-hee in 1968. On Jan. 21, 1968, 31 North Korean agents sneaked into Seoul on a mission to assassinate then-president Park Chung-hee. They almost reached Chong Wa Dae, but most of them were killed in the mountains surrounding the presidential residence.

The number of the unit, 684, stands for the April, 1968 when the unit was founded. The members were trained harshly on a remote, deserted island in the West Sea called Silmido.

The identities of those 31 figures and how they joined the unit are not known, though the movie described them as condemned criminals.

The unit was ready by 1969 for its infiltration mission into Pyongyang, but by that time relations between the two rival Koreas had thawed somewhat, and Seoul reconsidered its assassination plans. The unit members were left isolated on the island, unable to leave, for about three years in conditions described in the film as inhumane.

In August of 1971, unit members rose to kill their overseers and made their way to Chong Wa Dae in rebellion. Most of them, however, committed suicide with their grenades when confronted with troops in Seoul.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr

02-06-2004 17:46

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_684

Unit 684 was an expendable and unorthodox South Korean "black ops" team whose mission was to kill North Korea's premier Kim Il-sung.
The unit was set up by the Chief of Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) on the orders of President Park Chung-hee. The Defense Ministry said the unit in question was a detachment of the ROK Air Force’s Squadron 2325, which recruited 31 convicted Death Row criminals for a 'deep penetration' mission on April 1, 1968. One that was essentially a suicide mission, but the convicts were promised their freedom and a new start, if they achieved the mission's aim. Faced with the alternative, they accepted, and Unit 684 was born.
Mimicking North Korea's Unit 124, which had earlier failed to assassinate the South Korean President, Unit 684 was made up of 31 men, and the Unit's mission was to assassinate the then-leader of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung.
The number of the unit, 684, stands for April 1968 when the unit was founded. The members, being expendable, were trained harshly on the remote deserted island of Silmido Island in the Yellow Sea, off the coast of Incheon.
After about three years of rigorous training, during which seven of them died, Unit 684 set off in rubber inflatable boats towards North Korea on their mission. However, en route, it was terminated, and the members forcibly turned back by their instructors. This was because the Korean governments were now looking towards a peaceful reunification.
In August 1971, the KCIA cancelled the mission for good, ordering the instructors to terminate all Unit 684 trainees, and erase all evidence of the project. Before they could be murdered, the Unit 684 members rose up to kill their overseers.
They then attempted to make their way to the Blue House (South Korean President's House) in a rebellion. Most of them, however, committed suicide with hand grenades when roadblocked, and confronted by government troops, before they could cross the Han River. The survivors were sentenced to death by a military tribunal.
The story of the unit is loosely told by the Korean movie Silmido.