Ghauri, launched on April 6 last year, was probably supplied on a turnkey basis by North Korea to Pakistan. It has a range of 950-1020 km with a 700-kg to one-tonne warhead, a report published in Current Science says.

The missile represents a major step for Pakistan and provides a base for the development of even longer-range missiles if needed, it says.

Ghauri can strike at least up to an area covering Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and Nagpur, while at its maximum range, it can strike upto Hyderabad, a pictoral representation in the journal, based on a South-eastern launch from the Pakistani border, shows.

The report says North Koreans have the capability to launch a two-stage missile called `Taepo Dong' with a range between 1900 km and 2100 km and a one-tonnewarhead.

"Such a missile, if supplied to Pakistan, could threaten all of India from locations well within Pakistan," it warns. Ghauri is derived from the Scud-B missile of Russian origin, the report by S chandrashekar from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore says. It probably used a kerosene-based fuel known as RP 1 and red fuming nitric acid (RFNA) as oxidiser. The total fuel load has been calculated at 13 tonnes.

The analysis is based on data put out in Pakistani press, images of the missile, published information, simplified missile range and trajectory models and available open information on sizes, ranges and payloads of missiles developed by other countries.

Data in the Pakistani press indicated that the total flight time of the missile was nine minutes and 58 seconds, with the missile going up to 350 km.

From this data, the path of the missile appears to have been almost due West, the report says.

The analysis takes into account the three phases of a missile's trajectory -- thevertical lift-off and a programme turn to achieve the required speed and angle of injection; the ballistic phase where the missile only encounters the earth's gravity field; and the final re-entry phase.

It also takes into account velocity losses due to atmospheric drag (resistance due to friction) and earth's gravity. It says the actual distance travelled by Ghauri (705 km as reported in the Pakistani press) is lower than the IIM estimates.

The IIM estimate of the total flight time also differs from Pakistani press reports of 598 seconds.

The report says the calculated range, as well as an analysis of the length to diameter ratio lends credibility to the inference that Ghauri "seems to have been bought from North Korea and is almost certainly the Nodong missile." It is derived from the Russian Scud-B missile by clustering.

Contacts were established in 1989 between North Korea and Makeyev Bureau of Russia, which is involved in clustering of four Scud engines to build submarine-launched ballisticmissiles, which used RP 1 as the fuel and nitric acid or nitrogen tetraoxide as oxidiser.

Help from the Chinese, who have also adopted a clustering approach and who use RP 1 and RFNA in many of their missiles, cannot be ruled out, the report says. But Ghauri "does not seem to have a Chinese pedigree," it concludes.

It says Ghauri was more likely to have been provided on a turnkey basis to Pakistan by North Korea. This would mean outright payment and even setting up a production plant in Pakistan for catering to larger numbers needed for deployment.

A few months prior to the Ghauri launch, the U S imposed sanctions against North Korea for violating the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR).

But "it did not impose sanctions on the recipient country as is normally the case," the report notes. The imposition of sanctions against Pakistan and North Korea in the first week of May immediately after newspaper reports on the origins of Ghauri also seems to validate the North Korean connection," itadds.