Anchor: As part of U.S. President Barak Obama’s recently announced fiscal 2016 budget, Washington is looking to strengthen its missile defense capabilities to cope with threats from North Korea and Iran. The director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) discussed plans to beef up its interception capabilities to deal with evolving threats, including the North’s road-mobile KN-08.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
 
Report:  The United States Department of Defense has revealed that it is seeking to strength its missile defense capability to prepare for threats from North Korea and Iran.
 
Briefing reporters about his plans for the 2016 defense budget, U.S. Missile Defense Agency Director Vice Admiral James Syring said that he is constantly aware of the threat's evolution, including the North's KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
 
[Sound bite: James Syring, U.S. Missile Defense Agency Director (English)]
"And we constantly monitor other technologies that may feed the KN-08 ... And suffice it to say that we have effort under way to pace and stay ahead of the threat.”
 
U.S. intelligence authorities believe that North Korea is seeking ICBMs capable of delivering nuclear weapons to the United States, and that the new road-mobile KN-08 is nearly operational.
 
More than eight-point-one billion dollars of the Obama administration's 543 billion dollar defense budget request is slated to fund the Missile Defense Agency.
 
The MDA is aiming to buy 80 improved models of PAC-3 and 30 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles.
 
While planning to build two more nuclear-powered fast attack Virginia-class submarines, the U.S. will also stack up more missile interceptors that can be fired from Aegis destroyers.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.