Taep'o-dong 2 (TD-2) North-Korean ICBM

The Taep'o-dong-2 (TD-2) is said to be a two or three stage missile with a range estimated at approximately 3,650-3,750 km with a 700-1,000 kg payload. Other sources credit the TD-2/NKSL-X-2** with a range in excess of 4,000-4,300 km. North Korea has given various names to the Taep'o-dong missile, such as No-dong-3, Hwasong (Mars)-2 and Moksong (Jupiter)-2.

According to Kim Kil Son, who prior to defection to south Korea in August 1997 worked in a publications department of north Korea=s Number 2 Research Center, development of this missile started in 1987 after Kim Jong Il gave on the spot guidance to the Number 2 Research Center saying that "If we can develop this we have nothing to fear. Even the American Bastards won't be able to bother us. Whether we live or die, we must quickly develop the Hwasong 6."

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originally posted by: ultra_phoenix



The Taep'o-dong-2 (TD-2) is said to be a two or three stage missile with a range estimated at approximately 3,650-3,750 km with a 700-1,000 kg payload. Other sources credit the TD-2/NKSL-X-2** with a range in excess of 4,000-4,300 km. North Korea has given various names to the Taep'o-dong missile, such as No-dong-3, Hwasong (Mars)-2 and Moksong (Jupiter)-2.

According to Kim Kil Son, who prior to defection to south Korea in August 1997 worked in a publications department of north Korea=s Number 2 Research Center, development of this missile started in 1987 after Kim Jong Il gave on the spot guidance to the Number 2 Research Center saying that "If we can develop this we have nothing to fear. Even the American Bastards won't be able to bother us. Whether we live or die, we must quickly develop the Hwasong 6."

More : Link

Charles Vick created "NKSL-X-2" as an informal designation on the FAS website for the multi-stage rocket that US intelligence dubbed the Taepodong-2, perhaps because he felt it reasonable to suggest that there were elements of truth in the Korean Central News Agency news report regarding the maiden launch of the Paektusan-1 SLV (dubbed Taepodong-1 by US intelligence) in August 1998 (the Kwangmyongsong-1 propaganda satellite carried aboard the Paekusan-1 did not reach the target orbit as the KCNA news report claimed). As noted by Daniel Pinkston in a 2008 monograph on North Korea's ballistic missile program, a June 2006 issue of the pro-DPRK newspaper Choson Sinbo cited official North Korean sources as saying that Paektusan-2 is the official name for the North Korean SLV known by US intelligence as the Taepodong-2, whose first launch in July 2006 (in all probability a suborbital flight test) ended in failure and which had an unsuccessful first launch in April 2009 before finally lofting a satellite into low earth orbit in December 2012. Given that we now know that North Korea's space program is no technical joke at all and considering that the DPRK now has deployed mobile ICBMs in the years that Kim Jong-un took the helm of the North Korean state after his father's death in December 2011, the Paekusan-2 SLV that US intelligence dubbed Taepodong-2 and which is known in KCNA press releases as the Unha or Kwangmyongsong is best seen as a prestige project for Pyongyang to show the North Korean people that North Korea has become technologically advanced despite years of famine and economic lethargy.