N Korea hails ‘successful’ test of new rocket engine

Seoul, Sep 20 (AFP) North Korea has successfully tested anew, high-powered rocket engine, state media said today, amove Seoul said was designed to showcase its progress towardsbeing able to target the US east coast. The ground test comes less than two weeks after Pyongyangdetonated what it said was a miniaturised atomic bomb. Taken together, the two tests raise the prospect that theisolated state could be inching towards its ultimate goal ofdeveloping a nuclear-tipped missile that could hit WashingtonDC. State-run news agency KCNA trumpeted the engine test,which it said would give the country "sufficient carriercapability for launching various kinds of satellites". Rocket engines are easily re-purposed for use in missiles,and outside observers say that Pyongyang’s space programme isa fig leaf for weapons tests. The North’s leader Kim Jong-Un hailed the test and calledfor more rocket launches to turn the country into a "possessorof geostationary satellites in a couple of years to come",KCNA said. A geostationary satellite must be propelled to an altitudeof 36,000 kilometres, a Unification Ministry official wasquoted as saying by South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency. "The distance to the eastern part of the United States issome 12,000 kilometres. The North is thus showing off itsability" to hit the US east coast, the official added. Rocket scientist Chae Yeon-Seok at the South’s KoreaAerospace Research Institute said such an engine wouldrepresent "a technical leap forward" in developing launchvehicles. It suggests the North is "coming close to having aninter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could hit theUS mainland". Pyongyang regularly parades homegrown missiles and boastsof its plan to develop long-range missiles capable oftargeting America. It has already carried out a series of long-range missiletests presented as satellite launches, most recently inFebruary, and has fired missiles from a submarine. A proven submarine-launched ballistic missile system wouldallow deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and a"second-strike" capability in the event of an attack on theNorth’s military bases. After supervising the test at the country’s Sohaesatellite-launching site, leader Kim Jong-Un called onofficials, scientists and technicians "to round off thepreparations for launching the satellite as soon as possible",KCNA reported. Kim "expressed great satisfaction" with the results of thetest, according to KCNA, and said the North had madecutting-edge scientific advances despite difficult economicconditions. (AFP)ABH