Nigeria, North Korea to share missile technology

The Times of India ^ | January 28 2004 | Associated Press

[knighthawk]

LAGOS : North Korea has agreed to share missile technology with Nigeria , Africa 's most populous nation and a regional military giant, Nigeria 's government said Wednesday in a rare public disclosure of such a deal.

Nigeria insisted any North Korean missile help would be used for "peacekeeping" and to protect its territory.

Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar committed to the "program of cooperation that includes missile technology" with Yang Hyong Sop, the visiting vice president of North Korea's presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, said Abubakar's spokesman, Onukaba Ojo.

The North Korean was in Nigeria 's capital, Abuja , on a visit that started Tuesday and was to end on Saturday.

Officials gave no details of Tuesday's deal, including specifying whether Nigeria would obtain missiles - either Scud or ballistic -under the pact.

Weapons sales are a major revenue source for financially strapped North Korea . The United States alleges that Pyongyang reaped about US$560 million from missile sales in 2001.

In 2003, the United States imposed sanctions on a North Korean company, Changgwang Sinyong Corp., for selling missiles to Pakistan . A shipment of North Korean Scud missiles bound for Yemen was briefly stopped in December 2002 in the Arabian Sea .

Alleged North Korean missile deals seldom come out in official announcements, however, and it was unclear whether Wednesday's confirmation came with North Korea 's agreement.

A statement issued by Abubakar's office said only that the West African nation's "government would continue to cooperate with the Korean government in the defense sector, an area in which both Nigeria and North Korea had cooperated over the years."

Nigeria hoped the United States and other Western nations opposed to North Korean nuclear and weapons proliferation would respect the deal, Ojo said.

"We are a sovereign nation. We should be able to cooperate with any nation we wish to cooperate with as long as it is in the best interests of Nigeria ," Ojo added, stressing the country "is not shopping around for nuclear technology or weapons of mass destruction."

"Whatever we are discussing with them is only to enhance the capability of our military for peacekeeping and to protect Nigeria 's territorial integrity," Ojo added.

Ojo declined to answer when asked what possible peacekeeping use missiles would have for Nigeria .

Nigeria , with 126 million people, is a political and military heavyweight on the continent and a frequent recipient of U.S. military and law enforcement assistance. Its military supplies much of the manpower of regional peace missions.

North Korea largely exports "simple, robust" Scud missile technology - not up-to-date, but useful for countries with relatively unsophisticated militaries, said Rose Gottemoeller, a senior associate at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Africa deal takes the North Koreans well out of their normal selling base - the Mideast , Gottemoeller said. "What is surprising is that they're so far afield."

"They are clearly looking for cash in whatever market they can earn it," she said. "It's business as usual, and a very nasty business indeed."

[knighthawk]

Ping

[knighthawk]

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,6119,2-11-1447_1475352,00.html

Nigeria wants high tech nukes

Lagos - Nigeria is in talks with North Korea's isolated regime about acquiring advanced missile technology for the west African country's armed forces, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Nigeria's Vice President Atiku Abubakar met his North Korean counterpart Yang Hyong Sop on Tuesday in the Nigerian capital Abuja for wide-ranging bilateral talks, Atiku's office announced.

Among items on the agenda was Nigeria's hopes of obtaining missile technology and the know-how to set up a "multi-purpose foundry" for civilian use from North Korea, Atiku's spokesperson Onu Kaba Ojo said.

Following the meeting, Atiku's office released a statement saying: "He assured that government would continue to co-operate with the Korean government in the defence sector, an area in which both Nigeria and North Korea have co-operated over the years."

Ojo said that the defence talks went on behind closed doors, but that according to a note prepared for the Nigerian leader, "The area they discussed was missile technology and a multi-purpose foundry."

News that Nigeria is seeking military ties with Pyongyang may anger North Korea's arch-foe Washington, which sees President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration as a friend in Africa.

The White House is locked in a diplomatic stand-off with Kim Jong-Il's totalitarian regime over its bid to build a nuclear arsenal and its export of missile technology to regimes considered unfriendly by Washington.

[claudiustg]

After the election these PRK fools will be in a world of hurt.

[50sDad]

Please, when Kim Ill Jerk goes into Nigeria, please ask him to find the 1.4 million dollars that the Finance Minister owes me! I have been waiting and waiting for it to be wired into my checking account, and he hasn't called me all week!

[lilylangtree]

Nigeria? Isn't that one of the countries that Quaddafi owns?

[AngrySpud]

So this explains all those Nigerian-based email money scams: Money for Missles

[sheik yerbouty]

Nigeria is fast becoming a jihadist state. They have already started persecuting non Muslims, of whom most are Christians.

[NormsRevenge]

Bump

[gunnedah]

Another Clinton and Democrats in Congress legacy!
With citizens like these and about half of the voting public stupid, America is in for some dark days I am affraid!

[shaggy eel]

Nigeria , with 126 million people, is a political and military heavyweight on the continent and a frequent recipient of U.S. military and law enforcement assistance.

,,, right.