U.S. expects N. Korea's first ICBM customer to be Iran

North Korea is expected to soon present the Taepo Dong intercontinental ballistic missile for export, U.S. intelligence sources said.

The first customer, the sources said, will probably be Iran.

The sources said North Korea has proven able to accelerate missile development and sell technology and hardware after a minimum of tests. They said a major impetus of North Korea's missile program is to export the weapons for hard currency.

North Korea has agreed to suspend a planned launch of its new Taepo Dong-2 missile, with an estimated range of 10,000 kilometers, in exchange for U.S. aid. U.S. defense and intelligence officials said they expect North Korea to eventually launch the Taepong Dong.

Pyongyang launched the Taepong Dong-1 in July 1998 and intelligence sources said North Korea has determined that the missile will be soon ready for export. The missile is believed to have a range of up to 4-6,000 kilometers.

North Korea is regarded as the biggest exporter of missile hardware and technology in the Middle East. "North Korea has a very high propensity to export," a senior U.S. defense official said. "So that in addition to whatever threat that North Korea presents directly to the United States, its allies and the Far East, in principle, at least, to Europe, I think we have to be prepared for the possibility that North Korea would sell the missile technology, missile components, and conceivably the missiles themselves, to other countries, so those threats, those countries would then have the capabilities that North Korea would have."

Iran is expected to be North Korea's first customer of the Taepo Dong. Teheran has already bought several No Dong missiles and is obtaining help from North Korea for longer-range weapons.

The Clinton administration has determined that Iran has increased its support of terrorism.

U.S. intelligence sources expect North Korea follow the same chronology for the Taepo Dong as it did with the No Dong. They said Pyongyang began deploying and exporting the No Dong after one test.

North Korea is said to have manufactured about 100 No Dong missiles.There are several variants of the missile.

The senior U.S. official said North Korea is working on a missile with a range even greater than the Taepo Dong II. The official said the aim is for Pyongyang to fire missiles with a nuclear warhead that can reach anywhere in Europe and large parts of the United States.

The assessment, the official said, is that North Korea could complete such a missile within five years. The official said Iran is about five years behind North Korea in missile development.

Iran has been concerned, intelligence sources said, that North Korea and Russia will be restricted from continuing to help develop Teheran's missile programs. They said for the first time in years Iran has publicly complained of the U.S. effort against Teheran, which could signal that Washington has succeeded in a significant slowdown of missile technology transfer.

Already, Iran is more than two years behind plans to develop the Shihab-3 missile, the sources said. The missile has a range of 1,300 kilometers. Teheran, the sources said, has been considering importing and manufacturing the Taepo Dong as an alternative.

Senior Israeli defense officials, however said Russian companies continue supply missile technology to Iran. "The measures used so far have been insufficient," one official said.