Defense News - South Korea

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak is seeking to extend the range of the country’s ballistic missiles in response to possible nuclear and missile attacks from North Korea, a presidential spokeswoman said, March 22, 2012.

The Hyunmoo is the only ballistic missile developed by South Korea actually deployed. The latest generation of Hyunmoo missile has a maximum range of 1,500 km.

Lee told reporters that the government is in discussions with the U.S. to amend a 2001 accord that restricts South Korea’s missile range to 300 kilometers (186 miles), spokeswoman Lee Mi Yon said. An agreement will be reached shortly because conditions and realities have changed, she cited the president as saying.

The talks come as North Korea, under new leader Kim Jong Un, plans to launch a satellite atop a long-range rocket next month that the U.S. says will nullify a deal to provide the impoverished totalitarian state with food aid. President Barack Obama arrives in Seoul next week to attend a summit on checking nuclear proliferation, where the agenda will include North Korea’s atomic weapons program.

“We’re always looking for ways to enhance defense cooperation and ways of promoting enhanced stability of South Korea and stability in the region,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said yesterday at a briefing in Washington, declining to give specifics on talks with South Korea.

North Korea has rejected international criticism of its announcement of the launch to celebrate the centennial of the birth of state founder Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather. A North Korean rocket fired in 2009 demonstrated a reach of as far as 4,500 kilometers, and the government aims to increase the range to 7,000 kilometers, according to Baek Seung Joo of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul.