U.S. Negates Kemp SS-20 Query

The United States said today it was certain of the authenticity of a Soviet photograph of an SS-20 medium-range nuclear missile due to be destroyed under a superpower arms control treaty.

Republican presidential hopeful Jack Kemp, a conservative New York congressman who opposes the treaty, said on Tuesday the photograph appeared not to match U.S. expectations of the Soviet missile’s appearance. Kemp also suggested the United States had made unwarranted last-minute concessions to Moscow when negotiating the treaty. “Neither one of these allegations has any basis in fact whatsoever,” State Department spokesman Charles Redman said today.