According to story reported by Reuters Sunday, the North Korean government has informed international agencies that it also is planning to fire a second missile some time next month, in addition to the long-range Taepo-Dong-2 launch that has been the cause of so much conversation and concern.  The second launch will be of a short- or medium-range rocket and its flight plan will take the vehicle directly over Japan.  The rocket will drop booster sections in the seas to the west and east of Japan before falling into the Pacific Ocean.

The North Korean government has stated that any attempt to shoot down a rocket will be seen as an act of war.  The Japanese government has vowed to take action to shoot down any missile having a trajectory that intercepts Japanese airspace.  United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that the US will not shoot down a North Korean missile, but elements of the US Navy are patrolling the North Pacific and Sea of Japan and have received flyovers from Russian military aircraft.

Although the North Korean government claims the Taepo-Dong-2 launch will be for the purpose of launching into orbit a communications satellite, many analysts believe it is a public demonstration of improved nuclear ICBM technology that should be capable of reaching US targets.  The Taepo-Dong-2 launch is thought to be scheduled for between April 4th and 8th and recent intelligence suggests the hardware is already in place on the launch pad in final preparations.

There was speculation in 2004 that North Korea was attempting to make improvements upon existing Soviet R-27 medium-range ballistic missile designs (read this Newsmax article) and this leads to obvious speculation about whether the newly announced test is the result of those efforts.  The Soviet R-27 was designed for silo-based, ship-based or submarine-based launch and was developed in several variations.  The R-27U version was thought to be capable of directing a 200-kiloton warhead to strike a target at a range of 3,000 kilometers to within 1.3 kilometers accuracy.

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The Reuters story came to us by way of our friends at Naval Open Source Intelligence.

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