HC Deb 03 March 2004 vol 418 cc961-2W
Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what estimate he has made of the number of ballistic missiles(a) owned and (b) exported by North Korea; [157549]

(2) What assessment he has made of the biological weapons capacity of North Korea; [157548]

(3) What estimate he has made of the numerical strength of the special forces of North Korea; [157547]

(4) What assessment he has made of the (a) artillery and (b) missile launcher capacity of North Korea. [157546]

Mr. Hoon

Our assessment of North Korea's ballistic missile threat was published in December 2002 in the public discussion paper on Missile Defence, a copy of which is held in the library of the House. The paper is also on the Ministry of Defence website www.mod.uk. North Korea has some hundreds of SCUD short-range ballistic missiles and NO DONG medium-range ballistic missiles in service. It is estimated that North Korea has also exported at least 400 ballistic missiles.

North Korea is a State Party to the Biological and Toxin weapons Convention. North Korea has the infrastructure to support the development of chemical and biological weapons and we remain very concerned by persistent reports that it is pursuing programmes to develop WMD.

The North Korean special operations Forces totals nearly 90,000 personnel of whom roughly 40,000 are deployable combat personnel; the rest are support staff.

We estimate that the North Korean army has around 30,000 artillery pieces. North Korea possesses many thousands of launcher systems for its artillery and ballistic, air defence and coastal defence missiles.

The international Institute for Strategic Studies' annual publication 'The military Balance' gives details of military forces and capabilities.

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