Several missile experts have since come to a similar conclusion, but warn of the importance of ICBM’s successful launch last week – North Korea’s first in more than four years – not to be underestimated, noting that the test still showed a with the theoretical ability to hit all of the continental United States. The ICBM, launched from North Korea last Thursday, flew at an altitude of 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles) and 1,080 kilometers (671 miles) with a flight time of 71 minutes before launching into offshore waters off the west coast of Japan last Thursday, according to at the Ministry of Defense of Japan. Japan’s Deputy Defense Minister Makoto Oniki told reporters shortly afterwards that the height of the missile indicated it was a “new type of ICBM”. Japanese officials insist on this assessment this week, with Chief Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno saying on Monday that Tokyo considered the missile to be new based on flight altitude and other information. However, the South Korean official and missile experts said further careful analysis of the images in North Korean state media since last week’s launch gave two possible indications of Pyongyang’s alleged undermining. The South Korean official said assessments by Seoul and Washington showed that the ICBM released last week had only two engine nozzles, such as the Hwasong-15, while the Hwasong-17 had four. And a video released last Friday by Korea State Central Television (KCTV) that allegedly shows Kim Jong Un directing the launch reveals the North Korean leader’s shadow appears to the west, meaning it was filmed in the morning, but the launch took place in the afternoon. said the official. It was also cloudy in the launch site last Thursday, but the weather on the KCTV video appears to be sunny, the official said.
Analysts say the US should still be cautious
Several missile experts have also begun to question North Korea’s claim that it fired a Hwasong-17. Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said the KCTV video appears to have been taken during a failed March 16 launch in which a North Korean rocket exploded shortly after launch at an altitude of 20 km (12.5 miles). “North Korea released a video after the March 24 test. However, we measured the shadows in it and it is clear from the altitude and the angle of the sun that the video is from the test on the morning of March 16,” Lewis said. . “The video is from the (previous) test that failed. This strongly suggests that the other test was something different that they do not want to see.” Ankit Panda, a nuclear policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Pyongyang may have changed the Hwasong-15 – first tested nearly five years ago – to make it look more powerful. rocket. “They claimed it was the Hwasong-17, which is the new, very large ICBM they launched at a parade in October 2020, but it seems that what they were actually doing was putting a very light or perhaps no payload on a Hwasong “-15, which is the ICBM they first tested in November 2017. And they used it to organize a show,” Panda said. Panda said Pyongyang’s seemingly inflated claim was aimed at a domestic audience rather than an international one. “The only thing that is going well in North Korea right now is the missile program, so maybe Kim Jong Un intends to use this show to show his people that they are suffering, food shortages, financial difficulties, the lockdown. “For Covid, it was all worth it, because their national defense skills are still going strong,” he said. On Tuesday, South Korean lawmaker Ha Tae-keung told reporters that, according to military information, debris fell over the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, after the failed March 16 test. Ha’s office confirmed the lawmaker’s statements to CNN on Thursday, adding that North Korea may have been called upon to announce the Hwasong-15 launch on March 24 as Hwasong-17 to mitigate negative views in Pyongyang, where citizens saw the failure of 16 March. North Korea has not acknowledged reports of a failed March 16 test. Lewis, a nuclear weapons expert, said that no matter which missile was fired last Thursday, the test showed a strong offensive capability that U.S. defense officials must be careful about. “The rocket launched on March 24 would have a range of about 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles), which is certainly within the capabilities of a Hwasong-15, which can carry a nuclear weapon anywhere in the United States,” Lewis said. And Matsuno, the Japanese official, said Monday that North Korea’s missile program remains a serious threat to the security of Japan, the region and the world. CNN’s Yoonjung Seo and Junko Ogura contributed to this report.
