North Korea offered 3,500km intermediate range ballistic missiles to
UK arms dealer Michael Ranger, information detailed in a new UN report
has revealed for the first time.
Representatives from the North Korean front company Hesong Trading
Corporation allegedly offered Mr. Ranger modern and vintage small arms
and light weapons, GPS jammers, multiple launch rocket systems, and
“extraordinarily,” ballistic missiles with a range of up to 3,500 km.
“The price per unit was in excess of US$ 100 million for
those intermediate-range ballistic missiles and would be sold not less
than three at a time, mixed as one long-range and two medium-range
missiles or one medium-range and two long-range missiles”, testimony
provided by Mr. Ranger to the UN explained.
Although North Korea has a long history of selling short-range
SCUD-type ballistic missiles to governments in the Middle East, to date
there have been no reports of “medium” and “long-range” missile-types
being offered to foreign clients.
“DISTURBING” REVELATIONS
While no explicit link is made in the report, the range of the
missiles offered to Mr. Ranger coincides very closely with North Korea’s
only known intermediate-range missile, the Musudan, says Mark
Fitzpatrick, Director of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Programme
at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“3,500km is the range sometimes mentioned for the Musudan. They
don’t have any other missiles in that medium-range category,”
Fitzpatrick told NK News by email.
North Korea first showcased the Musudan to the outside world at an
October 2010 military parade covered by international media. But despite
the strident parade and subsequent spike in reporting on the missile
type, the Musudan is not known to have ever been flight-tested.
“It’s very disturbing that North Korea is seeking to sell such
systems, though the fact that they have never been tested in North Korea
should make any would-be buyers wary,” Mr. Fitzpatrick further
explained to NK News.
The Korean People’s Army was suspected of putting two Musudans into
“launch-ready” status during tensions with South Korea and the U.S.
earlier this year.
However, those launches never took place, leading some analysts to question whether the Musudan is real or not. That Mr. Ranger was offered the Musudan is therefore a noteworthy development.
SALES TECHNIQUE?
Although Mr. Ranger’s claims shed new light on how North Korean
officials might be marketing the DPRK’s latest missile capabilities to
foreign clients, experts suggest that his allegations should be taken
with a pinch of salt.
“Regarding the price, number and specifications of intermediate-range
ballistic missiles claimed to have been on offer to Mr Ranger- there
appears to be no means of verifying his claims,” Lawrence Dermody, an
arms researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
told NK News.
“However, it’s certainly possible that Hesong representatives had an
interest in exaggerating technology on offer to establish relationships
with potential buys or secure related contracts.”
Another analyst familiar with the UN report, who wished to remain
anonymous, echoed Mr. Dermody’s suspicions: ”It is possible that this
was the DPRK flying a kite to observe Mr Ranger’s reaction.”
INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING CONUNDRUM
Even if Musudan missiles really were for sale, tightened
international sanctions and intensified monitoring of cargo into and out
of the DPRK would have made it extremely difficult for someone like Mr.
Ranger to guarantee deliveries to would-be-clients.
“It is not clear how the DPRK would ship such missiles if indeed they
sold them. Given their bulk, however, they would probably use maritime
rather than air routes,” an analyst familiar with sanctions told NK News.
But after the high-profile turnaround of the Kang Nam 1, a North
Korean vessel suspected to have been transporting missile parts to
Myanmar in 2009, increased scrutiny over DPRK sea-lanes suggest that UN
sanctions may be adding serious hurdles to North Korea’s capacity to
sell advanced weapons systems.
Faced with an increasingly tight sanctions regime, the latest UN
report says that North Korea has few direct connections with mainstream
shipping companies and has to “charter feeder vessels to carry cargo to
regional hubs in neighboring countries”.
Doing so is not cheap and the principal reason why a sale of between
70 and 100 man-portable air defense systems from North Korea to
Azerbaijan, orchestrated by UK national Mr. Ranger, fell apart.
“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea looks carefully at the
bottom line and rejects orders for small quantities because of higher
per-unit manufacturing and/or transport costs”, the UN report explains.
When Mr. Ranger’s client requested a sample of 10 man-portable air
defense systems to be tested in Azerbaijan before committing to the full
purchase, North Korea insisted that testing must take place on DPRK
territory. But because of the risks involved in shipping even small
cargoes, it simply wasn’t cost-effective for Pyongyang to export such a
small cache and risk interception.
ONGOING EXPORTS?
Despite a tightening sanctions regime and steadily increasing number
of arms-related interceptions being revealed the latest UN report,
experts warn that sanctioned North Korean weapons exports could still be
continuing under the radar.
Nevertheless, Martin Uden, coordinator of the UN Panel of Experts, told NK News: ”While
there are gaps in implementation and arms exports are doubtless
continuing, it’s clear that the DPRK is having to go to extreme lengths
to circumvent UN sanctions, making it more and more difficult, expensive
and time-consuming to pursue this illegal trade.”
But an analyst familiar with sanctions said of the repeated
references to Dalian based entities in the latest UN report, ”It is
clear that the Chinese port [of Dalian] has continued to be deeply
involved in the DPRK’s illicit activities during the period covered by
the report.”…
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