South Korea Needs Better Missiles

Talks between South Korea and the United States to revise a bilateral pact enabling Seoul to make missiles reaching anywhere in North Korea have been mired in deadlock over differences in key details. Hawkish officials are angry over Washington’s excess interference in self-defense and are demanding Seoul ignore the nonbinding guidelines restricting the country’s missile capabilities. If the talks that began in January of last year are dragged on further, they may cause strains in the Korea-U.S. security alliance. South Korea wants to raise the cap on the missile range from 300 kilometers (186 miles) as defined in the 2001 bilateral agreement to at least 800 kilometers to bring all of North Korea within striking distance from the southernmost tip, and close the gap to the North’s missile capabilities.