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Libya obtains N. Korean
No-Dong missiles

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Thursday, August 9, 2001

WASHINGTON Ñ Libya has obtained No-Dong missiles from North Korea, U.S. officials said.

The officials said the No-Dong missiles arrived late last year and comprise the first of at least 50 such missiles from Pyongyang. The missiles are meant to be tipped with nonconventional warheads.

"Libya is out shopping for ballistic missile technology from North Korea and other places," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said in a radio interview over the weekend.

But other U.S. officials said Libya already has the capability to strike such southern European countries as Italy and Spain. They said European countries have already expressed such concern.

A U.S. defense source said the first shipment of No-Dong missiles arrived in Libya in November. The missiles were at first concealed in the desert, but then moved toward the coast where they were discovered by Israeli intelligence.

The source said Libya is believed to have 36 No-Dong missiles as well as several launchers. The delivery is part of a $600 million deal signed between Tripoli and Pyongyang. Egypt, the source said, is also expected to obtain some of the missiles.

At least 11 North Korean engineers and technicians are in Libya to help with the deployment of the missiles, the source said. The source said Libya and North Korea have launched talks on another missile shipment.

Wolfowitz said Libya has invested heavily in ballistic missile technology and could soon have intermediate-range missile capability. He would not elaborate.

The Libyan missile capability has garnered heightened interest in the Pentagon. In the Washington-based Armed Forces Journal, [Ret.] Gen. Barry McCaffrey wrote an article in which he warned of North Korean-Libyan cooperation.

"Of supreme concern to Europe, Libya has now received the first of 50 North Korean No-Dong missiles," McCaffrey said. "Libya should have little difficulty in creating a rudimentary nerve agent or biological bomblet capability in the coming decade."

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