This is, this is CBS, I in the world. I'm John Battle with Gordon Chang at

Gordon G Chang. Returned to the Koreans, this time South Korea, a headline.

South Korea starts ship-launched ballistic missile development.

We welcome David Maxwell, our colleague watching the careers for a long time.

The reason we are careful about it is that North Korea is a non-transparent state.

On the other hand, South Korea is an ally of the United States, most recently an ally of Japan,

and a bulwark of the defense of Asia from the Chinese aggressors.

David is the Vice President of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy.

He's also a senior fellow at the Global Peace Foundation.

David, a very good evening to you.

It is fresh for me to learn about South Korea weapon development.

Is this, Eun? Is this a new day in the Blue House?

Good evening to you.

Good evening and great to be here.

Well, certainly President Eun is embarking on military developments to enhance military capabilities, but really this has been a long-term ongoing process, really going back to the start of the

op-con transition process. And the primary focus of the op-con transition process

was for South Korea to develop independent

war fighting capabilities and these capabilities are of course very advanced

and designed for the defense of South Korea but also as in this weapon system

for offense against North Korea to be able to strike deep into North Korea with a precision munition.

So this is really enhancing the alliance,

enhancing South Korean capabilities

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