North Korean missile test photos are fakes
Photos claiming to show a successful submarine ballistic missile test by North Korean forces are being called fakes.
Suspicions emerged almost immediately after the official North Korean news agency posted the photos over the weekend, which purported to show significant advances in the country’s ballistic missile program.
The images showed president Kim Jong Un looking on approvingly as a missile thundered skywards from a nearby submarine.
Now experts have backed up what many suspected all along – the launch never occurred and the images are the latest in a long-running series of poorly executed forgeries from the totalitarian state.
US experts are reported to believe the images are likely designed to fool the world into believing the rogue state’s military technology is further advanced than it really is.
Authoer Joseph Bermudez has written extensively about North Korea’s missile program and said he was unconvinced by Pyongyang’s latest official pictures.
He said a pink reflection in the water indicated there should be flames visible from the missile but instead there appeared to be only steam.
Bermudez said the inconsistency was evidence the photograph had been manipulated.
This has all happened before.
North Korean propaganda quickly became the butt of jokes in March 2013 when the country released photographs of hovercraft landing as part of military exercises.
Instead of being over-awed by Kim Jong Un’s military might, the world laughed as problems with those photographs became obvious.
The same hovercraft appeared at least twice in one photo, its duplicity given away by a tell tale glare on the front and an incredibly similar plume of water in its wake.
But while North Korea’s propaganda efforts have become regular sources of comedy, its military ambitions and activities are no laughing matter.
Experts still believe the state poses a real threat to world security, even if its military is now as advanced or well equipped as it would have us believe.
