Korea Missile Site
Korea Missile Site
But other experts see the base, from which a missile was test-fired over Japan in August 1998, as a potentially deadly example of how little technological infrastructure is needed for a nation to have missiles that could threaten the United States.
''I'd be surprised if the base were anything but modest,'' said Frank J. Gaffney Jr., a former Pentagon official who directs the Center for Security Policy, a conservative private Washington group. ''North Korea can't feed its own people. But if crude will do, then we're fools to ignore capabilities that have the potential to do us grave harm.''
He said of all missile threats now facing the United States, ''this is probably the highest.''
The site, known as Rodong, is North Korean's only base for launching long-range missiles, and is used for test flights and potentially for mounting limited missile attacks. It has become an international flashpoint in recent years and one of the main threats cited by American proponents of a national antimissile system, which the Clinton administration says it is weighing.
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This site has long been a top priority for American spy satellites, but the government releases no information gathered by such surveillance.
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''This snapshot does not take into account what the North Koreans can get by way of help from clients and friends,'' he said. ''There's lots of evidence they're getting help from China and the Russians. That's a whole different problem.''
Korea Missile Site
But other experts see the base, from which a missile was test-fired over Japan in August 1998, as a potentially deadly example of how little technological infrastructure is needed for a nation to have missiles that could threaten the United States.
''I'd be surprised if the base were anything but modest,'' said Frank J. Gaffney Jr., a former Pentagon official who directs the Center for Security Policy, a conservative private Washington group. ''North Korea can't feed its own people. But if crude will do, then we're fools to ignore capabilities that have the potential to do us grave harm.''
He said of all missile threats now facing the United States, ''this is probably the highest.''
The site, known as Rodong, is North Korean's only base for launching long-range missiles, and is used for test flights and potentially for mounting limited missile attacks. It has become an international flashpoint in recent years and one of the main threats cited by American proponents of a national antimissile system, which the Clinton administration says it is weighing.
.
This site has long been a top priority for American spy satellites, but the government releases no information gathered by such surveillance.
''
''This snapshot does not take into account what the North Koreans can get by way of help from clients and friends,'' he said. ''There's lots of evidence they're getting help from China and the Russians. That's a whole different problem.''
