Seoul and Washington have reportedly made considerable progress in their negotiations over the revision of a bilateral ballistic missile pact to allow South Korea to better deal with North Korea’s increasing military threats.

The negotiations are expected to be concluded within a month or two, and their results could be announced in October when the allies’ defense chiefs meet in Washington D.C. for their annual Security Consultative Meeting, according to Dong-A Ilbo.

“The two sides are making the final coordination in their negotiations. Though the situation is still fluid, much of our demands concerning the missile range and the weight of the payload is expected to be reflected (in the results),” a senior military official was quoted as saying by the daily.

Speculation has grown that the range stipulated in the pact could more than double from the current 300-km limit with the payload weight expected to increase to around 700 kg.

Under a 2001 revision to the 1979 pact, Seoul is banned from developing longer-range ballistic missiles. The pact also stipulates that a payload must weigh no more than 500 kg to block the development of nuclear warheads.

“The negotiations between Seoul and Washington have proceeded well. We cannot make any premature judgment yet, but we both have the goal of reaching a conclusion as soon as possible,” a senior Cheong Wa Dae official said, declining to be named.

Seoul has pushed to increase the missile range stipulated in the pact to at least 800 km for South Korean units in non-frontline areas to put all core military targets in the North within striking range.

The U.S. has apparently been reluctant over the range extension as it could undermine its non-proliferation initiatives.

Seoul signed the first bilateral missile pact with Washington in 1979 despite the range limit of 180 km, on condition of U.S. assistance in missile technology development.

After years of negotiations with the U.S. amid the North’s push for the development of advanced missile technology, the two allies agreed in 2001 to revise the original pact to extend the range to 300 km.

The longest-range North Korean ballistic missile, deployed since 2007, is the Musudan missile with a range of 3,000-4,000 km. This missile, in theory, brings Guam, a key U.S. strategic base in the Asia-Pacific region, within its range.

The longest-range North Korean missile under development is the Taepodong-2 missile, presumed to have a range of more than 6,700 km, enough to hit parts of Alaska, but still short of reaching the U.S. mainland. The missile’s tests have so far failed.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)