No-Dung Missile Test-fired to impress the Ding-a-lings in a Ding-dong show of Gori missile
NYtimes.com Asia-pacific section
North Korean missile program.
"The Clinton administration made significant efforts to block this cooperation," he said, "but the
Pakistani leadership perceived a serious threat from India, and needed to match its neighbors
quickly."
Not only has Pakistan cooperated closely on its nuclear and missile programs with North Korea,
experts say, but also with Iran and Syria, countries that the Bush administration said this week could
someday put weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists.
Experts differ on just how independent Pakistan's missile program has actually become since its early
tests. "The Pakistanis say the Ghauri 2 and Ghauri 3 are significantly better than the Ghauri 1, and
can claim some real work of their own," Mr. Bermudez said. "They still don't admit that it is a
Korean missile, but it is all built on Korean technology."
The original Ghauri, named for a 12th-century Muslim emperor who invaded the subcontinent and
defeated Prithvi, the Hindu ruler of New Delhi, dates to late 1993, when former Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto followed up her re-election with a trip to China and North Korea.
Under heavy pressure from Washington not to sell missiles to Pakistan, China reportedly provided
financing instead to North Korea for the creation of a Pakistani missile program. The next year,
North Korea agreed to provide Pakistan with components from its Nodong missile line, which was
itself based on an old Soviet Scud design.
Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul, the retired former head
of Pakistan's largest intelligence body, Inter-Services Intelligence….
This is an Islamic army. This is a nuclear armed army. And this is our army," General Gul said in a
lengthy interview, in which he praised the Taliban as "absolutely remarkable" for having imposed
what he called a crime-free Islamic order on Afghan society.
"Why should people be afraid of Pakistan's couple of dozen nuclear weapons," Mr. Gul said?
<v>"America is not concerned. India has never raised an objection. It is the Zionists who object,
because they feel threatened and vulnerable. They think that an Islamic country should not have this." |
