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North Korea continues to arm
Purchases continue
despite bad economy
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By Jon E. Dougherty
© 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
Despite predictions of an impending economic collapse amid reports about
widespread famine, crop failures and even cannibalism, North Korea has
continued to spend scarce dollars to expand and upgrade its military,
according to published reports.
This year alone, the reclusive Stalinist country has spent $12 million on
Mi-8 helicopters purchased from Russia and 40 MiG-21 fighters from
Kazakhstan. The fighter planes -- part of an ongoing North Korean plan to
upgrade its air force -- are reportedly being assembled at "secret bases."
According to a late September North Korean Defense Ministry report, Pyongyang
also bought $4.90 million worth of TNT, $2.78 million worth of tanks and
blankets from China and $2.60 million worth of ammunition and ground-to-air
guns from Kazakhstan last year.
North Korea has also purchased tens of millions of dollars worth of more
advanced Russian Mi-26 helicopters, tank engines, spare parts and batteries,
as well as submarines and diving suits of the kind used to infiltrate Special
Forces units into South Korea recently.
In 1997, the North also bought nearly 8,000 trucks from Russia and an
undisclosed number of Mi-18 helicopters from Japan. And in 1995 Pyongyang
purchased nearly $7 million worth of 100mm guns and radar systems, mostly
from Moscow and Kazakhstan.
Though U.S. officials are reportedly at a loss to figure out where Pyongyang
is getting the money for so many new weapons, the South Korean Korea Times
newspaper said the North has increased weapons exports as well, using the
cash to finance their own weapons purchases.
"North Korea's exports of weapons reached an annual average of $50 million in
the past three years including $55.6 million worth of 230mm ammunition,
armored cars and military clothes shipped to Ethiopia, Congo, Iran, Syria and
Thailand last year," the paper said. "The North's outbound shipments of
weapons amounted to $60 million last year, most of which were AK rifles,
submarines and torpedoes sold to Vietnam, Thailand, Yemen and Zaire. In 1997,
it registered $30 million in exports of weapons such as SCUD missile-related
hardware and armored vehicles sold to Egypt, Sri Lanka, and Ethiopia."
However, the paper said, North Korea's weapons exports -- especially missiles
-- have fallen steadily since 1992. The previous year missile and military
exports reached nearly $410 million, but had fallen to only $120 million by
1993.
According to the CIA's annual 1999 World Factbook, military spending by North
Korea in 1997 amounted to $5 billion to $7 billion, or around 30 percent of
the country's gross domestic product (GDP). By comparison, the U.S. spent
$267.2 billion on the military in 1997, or about 3.5 percent of the nation's
GDP.
Robert D. Walpole, the CIA's National Intelligence Officer for Strategic and
Nuclear Programs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sept. 16 that
North Korea's continuing development of medium- and long-range ballistic
missiles "already pose a significant threat to US interests, military forces,
and allies overseas," which was "a fact underscored by North Korea's (recent)
Taepo Dong-1 launch."
"We have seen increased trade and cooperation among countries that have been
recipients of missile technologies," he said, while "some countries continue
to work toward longer-range systems, including ICBMs."
Walpole said the CIA believes "that during the next 15 years the United
States most likely will face ICBM threats from Russia, China, and North
Korea, probably from Iran, and possibly from Iraq." He added, "The Russian
threat, although significantly reduced, will continue to be the most robust
and lethal, considerably more so than that posed by China, and orders of
magnitude more than that potentially posed by the others, whose missiles are
likely to be fewer in number."
Though Walpole said he believes missile threats to the U.S. over the next
several years will involve systems "with less accuracy, yield, survivability,
reliability, and range-payload capability" than the nation is used to facing,
"North Korea's three-stage Taepo Dong-1 SLV demonstrated Pyongyang's
potential to cross the ICBM threshold if it develops a survivable weapon for
the system."
"Other potentially hostile nations could cross that threshold during the next
15 years," he told the committee.
Foal Eagle, the annual joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise that has
been either cancelled or scaled back in recent years by the Clinton
administration, is slated for Oct. 26-Nov. 5 and will involve some 300,000
South Korean troops and about 35,000 U.S. personnel.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon E. Dougherty is a staff writer for WorldNetDaily.
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