BERLIN, Aug 3: North Korea is deploying new land- and sea-based ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads and may have sufficient range to hit the United States, according to the authoritative Jane's Defence Weekly.

In an article due to appear on Wednesday, Jane's said the two new systems appeared to be based on a de comissioned Soviet submarine-launched ballistic missile, the R-27.

It said North Korea had acquired the know how during the 1990s from Russian missile specialists and by buying 12 former Soviet submarines which had been sold for scrap metal but retained key elements of their missile launch systems.

Jane's, which did not specify its sources, said the sea-based missile was potentially the more threatening of the two new weapons systems. "It would fundamentally alter the missile threat posed by the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and could finally provide its leadership with something that it has long sought to obtain - the ability to directly threaten the continental US," the weekly said.

Apart from targeting the United States, South Korea or Japan, North Korea might seek to sell the technology to countries that have bought its missiles in the past, with Iran a prime candidate, the article added.

Ian Kemp, news editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, said North Korea would only spend the money and effort on developing such missiles if it intended to fit them with nuclear warheads.

"It's pretty certain the North Koreans would not be developing these unless they were intended for weapons of mass destruction warheads, and the nuclear warhead is far and away the most potent of those," he said. -Reuters

Talks boycotted