SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean government officials dismissed as groundless on Monday a New York Times report that the nation was secretly developing longer-range missiles.
"It's not true, I notice that an official at our embassy in Washington already denied the allegation,'' said an official at Seoul's Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry.
The Times, citing U.S. intelligence analysts, said Seoul has built a rocket-motor test station apparently without telling Washington and conducted a test of a new missile that appears to violate agreements between the allies.
The United States and South Korea have a 20-year agreement that sharply limits Seoul's ability to deploy powerful missiles as a deterrent but media reports have said Washington might be willing to extend slightly the permitted range.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Robert Einhorn is due to hold talks about Seoul's missile program on Thursday and Friday with Song Min-soon, director-general of the North American Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
A foreign ministry official said South Korea wants to expand the range beyond the current 180 kilometers (108 miles), but declined to say by how much.
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung on a visit to Washington in June asked that the range be expanded to 500 kilometers (300 miles), capable of striking almost anywhere in the north.
The South Korean government-backed Agency for Defense Development said on Monday the country has deployed locally-developed Chunma surface-to-air missiles with a range of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in areas surrounding the capital.
The country announced the development and successfully test-fired the missiles in 1997.
The Times said South Korea is interested in developing longer-range missiles to be less dependent on the United States at a time when North Korea, with which it is technically at war, has made strides in its own missile program.
North Korea test-fired a three-stage missile last year, part of which flew over Japan, and intelligence reports suggested that Pyongyang at one point was preparing to soon launch another longer-range missile with the capacity to reach the U.S. states of Alaska and Hawaii.
North Korea also has No Dong missiles with a range of 600 miles (966 kilometers) that could strike all of South Korea.
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