From: Allen Thomson (thomsona@flash.net)
Subject: No TD-1, No Shahab 4, TD-2 TBD 
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Date: 2003-11-07 19:54:23 PST 

Interesting stuff has come out about Evil Axian rockets and/or space launch vehicles:

---------------------------------------------------------

  Reply by the Defense Intelligence Agency to the Senate intelligence
  committee on PDF page 8 of
  http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2003_hr/021103qfr-dia.pdf 
  dated 30 June 2003:

  "We [DIA] continue to assess that Pyongyang may be ready to test
  the Taepo Dong 2 (TD-2), perhaps as a space launch vehicle, and
  perhaps in another country, with little advance warning. A flight
  test of a shorter range missile also is possible at anytime [sic].

  "We [DIA] have no information to suggest Pyongyang intends to
  deploy the Taepo Dong 1 (TD-1) as a surface-to-surface missile
  in North Korea. We believe instead that the vehicle was a test
  bed for multi-stage missile technologies."

---------------------------------------------------------

  http://www.spacedaily.com/2003/031105122356.q3oibf7u.html
  Iran Says It Will Not Manufacture Shahab-4 Long Range Missile
  TEHRAN (AFP) Nov 05, 2003
  [EXCERPT]

  Iran has no intention of manufacturing a missile more powerful
  than the Shahab-3, a medium-range missile with a touted range
  of over 1,500 kilometers that recently went into service, the
  defence ministry said in a statement carried Wednesday by the
  student news agency ISNA.

  "As we have said on several occasions and contrary to certain
  statements, Iran has no programme to build a Shahab-4 missile,"
  the statement was quoted as saying.

  It was not clear what provoked the defence ministry to issue
  such a statement.