Posted on 09/02/2016 6:52:15 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
China could have provided N. Korea with submarine missile
China could have provided North Korea with the submarine-launched ballistic missile that the regime in Pyongyang successfully test-fired last week, a U.S. expert claimed Thursday.
Bruce Bechtol, a North Korea expert at Angelo State University in Texas, made the remark during an interview with the John Batchelor Show radio news program, calling the North's SLBM, known as KN-11, a "carbon copy" of China's JL-1 submarine missile.
"The missile that the North Koreans launched looks like it's a two-stage missile just like the JL-1. It looks like it's a solid-fuel missile just like the JL-1," Bechtol said, adding that the North Korean missile is believed to be "a JL-1 or a very, very close variant."
"Just looking at the JL-1 and the North Korean SLBM, they're looking exactly the same," he said.
Bechtol said that China has a record of providing the North with military hardware, saying the North acquired transporter-erector-launchers (TEL), a vehicle used in carrying and launching missiles, from China in recent years.
The professor also said that he has some joint research with space program expert Tal Inbar of Israel's Fisher Institute and the two shared the view that the North's SLBM could have come from China.
"He and I agree that there is really not any other missile that looks similar at all to this North Korean missile whereas the JL-1 looks like a carbon copy of it," he said.
The North successfully conducted the latest SLBM test last week, sending the missile, designated KN-11, some 500 kilometers over the East Sea, the greatest distance the communist nation has achieved since it began SLBM tests last year.
Moreover, the missile was launched at a high angle, meaning the missile could have flown farther.
State Department spokesman John Kirby declined comment on Bechtol's claims.
"I'm not able to speak to intelligence matters here from the podium," Kirby said at a regular press briefing. (Yonhap)
P!
Is this some of the technology which Bill Clinton let the CHiComs have?
Obola wasn’t kidding when he promised fundamental transformation.
All Nork missiles of any size today are liquid fueled. Solid fueled missiles are complex technology.
And they are absolutely essential for even a rudimentary nuclear arsenal.
Somebody transferred this technology to them.
I’ve been saying all along that an enemy could launch one nuke at CONUS to “put us in our place,” presuming it would be extremely difficult to identify the nation state responsible. Naturally, it would involve the use of a proxy. Sort of a “there, that should keep them busy for a while” gambit. This could be a step in that direction. And if we did determine it was the Norks, well, what would China care if we glassed NK over in retaliation?
I liked the Cold War better.
Ignore the monkeys, shoot the organ grinders.
North Korea is China’s dog. They loosen its chain now and again to threaten the neighbors.
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