The World : North Korea Gets MIG-23s

The State Department said the Soviet Union is supplying advanced MIG-23 jets to North Korea and charged that the move could affect thd balance of power with South Korea. A spokesman, Robert Smalley, said the shipments “have apparently not yet ended.” He called the jet fighter “a more capable aircraft than the MIG-21,” until recently North Korea’s most advanced plane. However, the MIG-23 is not as highly rated as newer MIGs used by the Soviet Union or as the F-16 the United States has agreed to sell to South Korea.