N Korea leader orders production of more missiles

N Korea leader orders production of more missiles
Wed Aug 23, 2017 12:12:20

North Korea’s leader has ordered the production of more rocket warheads and engines, shortly after the United States suggested that its threats of military action and sanctions were having an impact on Pyongyang’s behavior.

Inspecting the country’s Chemical Material Institute of the Academy of Defense Science, which develops missiles, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un instructed the workers at the plant to “produce more solid-fuel rocket engines and rocket warhead tips,” state media reported Wednesday.

Kim said he wanted a further expansion of the “engine production process and the production capacity of rocket warhead tips and engine jets by carbon/carbon compound material.”

The North Korean state news agency also released photos that appeared to show the designs of one or possibly two new missiles that had not been seen before.

One of the photos showed a diagram for a missile called “Pukguksong-3,” which appeared to be the latest in its series.

“The Pukguksong-3 is definitely new,” said Michael Duitsman, a research associate at the Center for Non-Proliferation Studies.

The diagram suggested that the Pukguksong-3 might be designed to fly farther and to be launched from protective canisters, which allow missiles to be transported more easily and makes them more difficult to locate and destroy in advance.

Duitsman said the other missile was likely either a Hwasong-13 or Hwasong-11, which is another type of intercontinental ballistic missile.

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