Japan has concluded that the four ballistic missiles launched by North Korea on Monday were all Scud-Extended Range(ER) missiles.
 
The Yomiuri Shimbun said on Thursday that Japan’s Defense Ministry reached the conclusion based on its analysis.
 
Scud-ER missiles, which have a flying range of about one-thousand kilometers, are a variant of the Scud missiles that can fly 300 kilometers to 500 kilometers. The Scud-ER carries a lighter warhead than the Scud.
 
According to Yomiuri, the Japanese defense ministry presumed that the North used liquid fuel in launching the Scud-ER missiles, unlike the ballistic missile launch on February 12th which used solid fuel.
 
The North developed Scud-ER missiles in 2005. It previously launched three of the missiles in September of 2006, all of which fell in almost the same area within Japan’s exclusive economic zone(EEZ) as the three missiles launched Monday. However, at the time the Japanese ministry speculated the missiles were a mid-range Nodong variation with a flying range of one-thousand-300 kilometers.
 
Yomiuri said that Tokyo judges that the North has improved the precision of its missile launches and that it is tightening its vigilance against the regime. 

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