Seoul's Defense Ministry said that the missile North Korea fired last week is an upgraded version of Russia's SS-21, marking its first official confirmation of North Korea's missile launch.
The missile, if fired from near the inter-Korean border, could strike U.S. military compounds in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, the site where most U.S. soldiers will be stationed in a few years, in addition to thousands of troops currently stationed there.
Richard Lawless, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, told a group of Diet [Japanese parliament] members last week that the missile test fired into the Sea of Japan by North Korea last week could be a new ballistic missile, Tokyo's Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported.
Early intelligence assessments of the missile indicate it may have been a Scud variant missile.
The Diet delegation that met Lawless was led by Shinzo Abe, acting secretary general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The missile test came amid signs obtained by satellite intelligence showing possible preparations in North Korea for a first nuclear test.
North Korea test-fired a short-range missile off its eastern coast toward Japan on May 1, fueling worries that it might be trying to fit its missiles with nuclear warheads. The Defense Ministry had refused to confirm the North's missile test even after the White House confirmed it.
"North Korea fired a missile into the East Sea [Sea of Japan] whose range is presumed to be from 100 to 120 kilometers, and is called by the North the KN-02, an upgraded version of the Russian SS-21," Kim Sung-Il, a senior official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a closed-door parliamentary session. The Soviet Union developed SS-21s in 1974.
In 1998, North Korea test-fired a long-range ballistic missile, believed to be a Taepodong, over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.
