Is North Korea using China’s satellites to guide its missiles?

While information on military programs in the North is difficult to verify, reports going back to 2014 show that North Korean engineers were in China for technology training on how the country’s satellite navigation system — known as Beidou or Compass — worked.

Later the same year, another news report cited a Chinese military expert as saying China cannot stop North Korea from using Beidou in military operations.

Beside Beidou, the other main satellite navigation options for North Korea are the Global Positioning System of the United States and the Russian system known as Glonass.

“While I would never exclude the possibility of Glonass applications for N Korea’s rocket and missile systems, Beidou looks like a more reasonable solution for N Korea,” said Yu Koizumi, a research fellow at Japan’s Institute for Future Engineering, in an email.

Russia imposed an embargo on transfers of weapons and military-related technologies to North Korea after its nuclear tests in the 2000s, although it’s unclear if Glonass-related equipment was included, said Koizumi, a specialist in Russia’s security policy.

Launches of Beidou satellites started in 1994 and have resulted in China deploying a system in East Asia and beyond that is akin to the GPS. Like GPS, Beidou supports two varieties of service: One for civilian and commercial use, and another more robust, supposedly jam-proof, and more precise for military users.

When 59 Tomahawk missiles launched by US Navy destroyers struck their targets in Syria in early April, they were probably guided to their targets by GPS, although Tomahawks are equipped with other guidance systems as well…..MORE HERE