‘I was in some small way involved,’ admitted Sir Adrian.
‘Well, I understand General Li has admitted that North Korea is going for one last throw of the dice. All or nothing. The Hwasong-20. Under construction now.’
‘That is exactly what he said. I was there.’
‘Lucky you, Sir Adrian. I hope I may have access to the general later. The Americans are first. But the Hwasong-20 will have to be quite different to its predecessor.’
‘In what way?’
‘Missiles that large are usually stored in underground silos and fired from them. The silo cover disguises the missile from prying eyes in the sky until it is removed for firing. Then the missile emerges vertically, riding a huge fireball that launches it into space. When clear of the earth it tilts on to its new trajectory, which will carry it to its target, where the warhead separates, drops and explodes.
‘But Hwasong-15 is carried on the back of a 32-axle vehicle. The two weigh a hundred tons. In North Korea, only a few specially prepared roads can begin to accept such a load. But it doesn’t matter. It only needs one to be successfully hidden in a cavern with a few miles of disguised highway for it to emerge and fire.
‘However, Hwasong-20 will have to be silo-based, built and hidden in some underground complex we do not yet know about.’
‘That is also my information,’ said Sir Adrian. ‘And that is where General Li comes in. He does know.’
‘That is bad for Kim. But not the last of his problems. That honour goes to the missile’s engine. North Korea has never been able to build missile power units big enough for the Hwasongs.’
‘So where does she get them? China?’
‘No, Russia. The missile potential of North Korea has increased rapidly since Kim Jong-un came to power. The reason is that he switched power units. There used to be two factories in the old USSR that built the Soviet engines. One was in Ukraine, the other just outside Moscow. Then came the break-up of the USSR, and out went the Ukrainian one. The Russian plant went on making the RD250 rocket engine. That was what was used to power the Hwasong-12, 14 and 15, and it accounts for the sudden increase in North Korean threat-level under the Fat Boy.
‘Then came disaster. In Moscow, the government began a trillion-ruble rearmament programme and switched to a new missile engine. The manufacturer of the RD250 lost the contract. Their name is Energomash. They found themselves with spare RD250s, but no orders. In steps Kim Jong-un. My information is that Energomash is rapidly upgrading some of its RD250 engines for shipment to Pyongyang to form the power unit of the Hwasong-20. If Energomash would stop doing that, Kim would be virtually finished. He would have the bombs, but no missiles to launch them.’
‘The government in Moscow will not prevent that,’ said Sir Adrian. ‘Not in their present mood. Russia is now as aggressive to the West as she was during the Cold War. So, no help there. When Energomash is finished and wishes to make delivery, how would they do that?’
Professor Dixon thought it over.
‘It will be a big bastard,’ he said. ‘A liquid-propellant engine, but only a single-stage one. And enormous quantities of hypergolic fuel, which is extremely toxic and unstable. I doubt it could be carried in an airplane. More likely on a sealed train. Across Siberia, north of the Chinese and Mongolian borders, down the isthmus to the tiny crossing point from Russian territory into North Korea.’
‘You said it was unstable. Could anything go wrong?’
‘Only if it were made to.’
Sir Adrian thanked him and left.
The summer sun was still shining and the terrace at Chequers still a pleasant place to lunch when the Prime Minister and Sir Adrian met again. When they were alone she asked:
‘So, your Korean defector. How was he?’
‘Very smart and very angry. Of course, the concept of “face” demanded that he hide it.’
‘Is that good?’
‘Very much so, Prime Minister. When a man is convinced he has been treated unjustly, he seethes with rage and therefore holds nothing back. General Li will tell everything he knows, and it will be a lot.’
‘Does he know why he was destined for arrest?’
‘No, he does not. He was utterly loyal to the Kim regime.’
‘Or who tipped him off in time to flee?’
Sir Adrian remained silent as he thought about his reply.
‘He has no idea, does he?’
‘Fortunately, no. Neither does the North Korean government. The denunciation and the tip-off remain a mystery to both.’