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* Haroon Siddique
* guardian.co.uk,
* Tuesday November 04 2008 11.16 GMT North Korea is building a new missile base near its border with China to
launch rockets that exceed its current range capability, South Korea's
defence minister said today.
Lee Sang-hee told South Korea's parliament that the new missile site on
North Korea's west coast was designed to fire "a bigger-sized missile or
satellite projectile" than rockets deployed on the North's existing
Taepodong facility on the country's east coast. North Korea's missile programme has been a key regional concern, along
with its nuclear programme - the country carried out its only nuclear
test in 2006. But last month the US removed the communist nation from the list of
states that support terrorism after North Korea took steps to dismantle
its nuclear programme and promised access to its nuclear sites. North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium to produce about half a
dozen bombs, but it is not believed to have acquired the technology
needed to mount a nuclear weapon on a missile. In 2006, the North launched a long-range Taepodong-2 missile from its
east coast site. The missile, considered the country's most advanced
rocket, has a range of more than 9,300 miles (15,000km) — far enough to
strike the western US. But the test was considered a failure as the rocket plunged into the
ocean shortly after lift-off.
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