http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010117/wl/skorea_us_missiles_1.html

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - After extended negotiations with the United States, South Korea said Wednesday that it will build and deploy missiles with ranges long enough to reach key cities of communist North Korea (news - web sites).

Under its new missile policy officially adopted Wednesday, South Korea will build missiles capable of traveling up to 187 miles with a payload of up to 1,100 pounds, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

During their historic summit in June, the leaders of South and North Korea agreed to avoid confrontation, especially along the DMZ, the world's most heavily armed border. There was no immediate reaction from North Korea.

Nevertheless, the South wanted to improve its deterrent capabilities by extending the range of its missile.

A key obstacle was a 1979 agreement with Washington that barred South Korea from developing a missile with a range longer than 112 miles.

Washington feared that South Korea's attempt to lengthen missile ranges could trigger a regional arms race and make it more difficult to persuade North Korea to curb its missile development and exports.

After 20 rounds of talks since 1995, Washington agreed earlier this month to let South Korea develop missiles within the limits of Washington's Missile Technology Control Regime, which would allow it to deploy missiles with a range of up to 187 miles.

Washington is trying to curb the communist North's missile development and exports. North Korea rattled East Asia in mid-1998 by test firing a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.

Local news reports, quoting an unidentified government source, said South Korea could extend its missile range further to 310 miles if it agrees to reduce the payload.

Missiles with a 310-mile range can strike almost anywhere in North Korea, except for its northeast corner. With 187-mile-range missiles, South Korea could hit Pyongyang and other key North Korean cities.

Also on Wednesday, officials in Seoul said that South and North Korea will resume dialogue later this month to discuss reconnecting a railway crossing their heavily armed border.

North Korea proposed that military officers of both Koreas meet at the border village of Panmunjom on Jan. 31 and the South has agreed, Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Kim Yong-han.

The meeting would be the fourth since September.

The talks focus on cooperation in the construction of the railway and a four-lane highway next to it across the 2.5-mile-wide Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, that separates the two Koreas.

The railway and highway would be the first direct land transport links between the two Koreas since the war. The railway will link Seoul and Pyongyang, the two Korean capitals, and continue on to Shinuiju, a major city on the North's border with China.