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By Jun Ji-hye
North Korea has yet to master its ability of intercepting missiles from South Korea and the United States although it has been making efforts to enhance its air defense systems under the leadership of Kim Jong-un, a report showed Monday.
The report released by the Institute for Far East Studies of Kyungnam University said the North currently possesses 179 SA-2s, 133 SA-3s and 38 SA-5s, surface-to-air missiles.
The SA-2 is to shoot missiles down at an altitude range of three to 22 kilometers, the SA-3 at an altitude of 10 to 100 kilometers and the SA-5 at an altitude of 20 to 300 kilometers.
The North has deployed the SA-2s and the SA-5s in its western and eastern areas, while the SA-2s and SA-3s are in Pyongyang.
Ostensibly, the North seems to have installed the multi-layered air defense systems between low and high altitudes, but the SA missiles were developed and deployed in the 1950s and 1960s, and therefore are believed to perform poorly compared to Seoul and Washington's PAC-2 Patriot anti-missile systems, the report noted.
"It is hard to say that the North possesses measures to defend against Seoul and Washington's missiles," Prof. Jang Cheol-wun said. "Though the SA-2 is old, it was used during the Vietnam War to shoot U.S. fighter jets down. Such a missile has limits in intercepting missiles, but is still a threatening weapon against fighters."
But the professor added that as U.S. fighter jets are equipped with stealth functions, they would be able to avoid primary attacks with the missiles.
