archive: US awakens to Pak's missile proliferation
US awakens to Pak's missile proliferation
Chidanand Rajghatta
The Indian Express
July 11, 1999
Title: US awakens to Pak's missile proliferation
Author: Chidanand Rajghatta
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 11, 1999
WASHINGTON, JULY 10: India's interception of a North Korean ship
carrying missile parts and blue prints to Pakistan appears to have
reopened a pandora's box and shown up conclusive proof of what the
United States has been selectively fretting about in recent times:
proliferation of advanced ballistic technology and weapons between
rogue and militaristic regimes.North Korea and Pakistan have long been
prime suspects in the proliferation game, but Washington, rather than
confront Pyong Yong, has been trying to buy out its advanced missile
and nuclear program with food and aid. But the totalitarian regime
itself has been having its food and selling its missiles too. In
Pakistan's case, Washington has been winking at its acquisitions. But
it now turns out that the Clinton administration can't help being
concerned about the developments, particularly the possibility of
Pakistan exporting its nuclear and ballistic advances, a move
advocated recently by some of its more zealous leaders like former ISI
chief HamidGul.
Alarm bells rang in Washington two months ago following a visit by
Saudi Arabia's Defense Minister, Prince Sultan bin Abdelaziz al-Saud,
to the Pakistani nuclear and missile facilities near Islamabad.
According to US accounts, the Prince, accompanied by Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif and Dr A.Q.Khan, visited two plants, one for Uranium
enrichment in Kahuta and one for the manufacture of Ghauri missiles.
It was the first time that an outsider had visited the top-secret
sites, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Although the Americans have enlisted Saudi support to temper the mood
in Pakistan for the Kargil withdrawal proposal, as reported in this
paper, Washington is clearly uneasy about the Pak-Saudi military
nexus.
The Times quoted a senior administration official as saying the visit
to the top secret sites by the Prince was considered in Washington as
"definitely eyebrow-arching." Adding to the Administration's fears was
a lack of clarity by Saudi Arabia when Washington asked why the
ministerhad visited the plants, officials said.
The development was considered grave enough by the administration for
President Clinton to raise the proliferation issue when he met Nawaz
Sharif and warn Pakistan about such sales.
Some US officials, however, glossed over the Pak-Saudi proliferation
nexus, saying Prince Sultan was most interested in acquiring missiles,
not nuclear weapons technology.
A Senior Administration official said Washington had received
"assurances from Saudi officials that they are not seeking weapons of
mass destruction," or nuclear weapons, the Times reported.
Other analysts were less charitable. "The clear inference is that he
(Prince Sultan) is interested in the material at the sites he
visited," Michael Krepon of the think tank Stimson Center was quoted
as telling the paperClinton administration officials have been equally
blase about North Korea's sale of ballistic missile technology to
Pakistan.
According to informed accounts in non-proliferation circles, North
Korea hasbeen selling Pakistan weapons and blue prints for hard cash
and food, following a deal struck during then Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto 1993 visit to that country.
Analysts both in the west and in India say Pakistan's Ghauri missile
is a thinly disguised version of the North Korean No-Dong medium range
missile.According to intelligence sources, North Korea has a long and
sustained history of ballistic missile development going back to the
1960s and linked to its own geostrategic perceptions vis-a-vis South
Korea, Japan and the United States.
The principle design outfit in North Korea is called the January 18th
Machine Factory located in Kagamari in the southern province of
Pyonghahn. This underground facility, which employs up to 10,000
people, has mastered missile technology by reverse engineering many
Russian and Chinese missiles.The missiles are then manufactured at
specific missile factories like the 125 Factory, also known as the
Pyongyong Pig Factory, the Number 26 Factory, and the 118
Factory.Military delegations from buyer countries like Egypt, Iran and
Pakistan are believed to have visited the rocket assembly lines in
these factories.
The technology transactions are believed to have been routed through
companies like the Yongak-san Trading Company and the Changkwang
Trading Company under the 2nd Economic Committee, the 15th Bureau (the
General Bureau of Technology) in the Armed Forces Ministry.
US proliferation experts like Gary Milholin say Islamabad has been
carrying on a cloak-and-dagger operation is procuring the missile
technology while successfully covering its tracks. According to North
Korean officials who defected from the Communist regime and testified
before the US Congress last year, Pyong Yong earned about $ 1 billion
a year from missile exports, a significant sum for an impoverished
country whose total GNP is estimated at only $ 22 billion. Young-hwan
Ko, a senior official who defected, told US law-makers that North
Korea considered exporting missiles crucial to its economy.
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