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China and North Korea May Have Sold Missiles to Egypt

Nov 17, 2013

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American intelligence believes Egypt is once again using Chinese and North Korean missile experts to improve Egyptian ballistic missiles. The Chinese firm involved (China Precision Machinery Import-Export Corp) had earlier been sanctioned by the United States for illegal ballistic missile and technology exports according to Strategy Page.

An old Russian Scud missile launcher. Illustration photo

North Korea is not supposed to be exporting these products but has never accepted any of the many weapons-related export sanctions imposed on it. Recently, North Korea was suspected of flying in ballistic missile parts to Egypt.

North Korea has exported some 500 ballistic missiles since 1987. Most (420) of these shipments occurred between 1987 and 1993. For the rest of the 1990s, there were only about 30 shipped. In the last decade there have only been about 60 exported. Most of these missiles went to Syria, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, Libya, the UAE and Yemen. Most of the missiles were SCUD class weapons, which cost about a million dollars each.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

These banned exports have been a major source of income for North Korea. Egypt is believed to have over fifty North Korean built ballistic missiles, with about twenty of them (Nodongs) having a range of over 1,200 kilometers. Most of the 500 Egyptian ballistic missiles are variants on the 1950s Russian SCUD design and the majority are locally made. These have a range of 500 kilometers or less. Violating international sanctions to fix up the military’s decrepit ballistic missile force would solve several problems at once.

The Chinese and North Korean missile experts were spotted in Egypt recently appearing to be selling upgrades to Egyptian missile design and production capabilities. Egyptian missiles are believed to be poorly maintained and the launch crews not really prepared for combat conditions. The foreign help could improve the chances that Egypt will actually succeed in using these missiles as they are supposed to be used. In fact these ballistic missiles are the only way Egypt could actually succeed in hitting Israeli targets. Despite Egypt’s 240 F-16 fighters and 970 M-1 tanks, the pilots and tank crews are no match for their Israeli counterparts.