{"id":1403646,"date":"2022-03-28T05:00:24","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T09:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1403646"},"modified":"2022-03-28T05:00:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T09:00:32","slug":"analysts-investigate-possibility-of-n-korea-missile-test-deception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/analysts-investigate-possibility-of-n-korea-missile-test-deception\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysts investigate possibility of N.Korea missile test \u2018deception\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fanalysts-investigate-possibility-of-n-korea-missile-test-deception%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1403646&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/2022-03-28T080057Z_1_LYNXNPEI2R0C9_RTROPTP_0_NORTHKOREA-MISSILES-ICBM_1.jpg\" alt=\"FILE PHOTO: An overview of what state media reports is the launch of the\" \/><br \/>FILE PHOTO: An overview of what state media reports is the launch of the &#8220;Hwasong-17&#8221; intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in this undated photo released on March 25, 2022 by North Korea&#8217;s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). KCNA via REUTERS\/File Photo<\/div>\n<p>March 28, 2022<\/p>\n<p>By Josh Smith<\/p>\n<p>SEOUL (Reuters) \u2013     Reports suggest North Korea\u2019s biggest missile test ever may not have been what it seemed, raising new questions over the secretive country\u2019s banned weapons programme.<\/p>\n<p>North Korea said it had test-fired its new Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Thursday, the first test of a missile that size since 2017.<\/p>\n<p>North Korean state media heralded the launch as an \u201cunprecedented miracle\u201d, and South Korean and Japanese officials independently confirmed flight data that showed it flew higher and longer than any previous test.<\/p>\n<p>But new details \u2013 including discrepancies spotted in the North\u2019s heavily stylized video featuring leader Kim Jong Un overseeing the launch in a leather jacket and sunglasses \u2013 have poked holes in Pyongyang\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe biggest question now is what was launched on March 24,\u201d said Colin Zwirko, a senior analytical correspondent with NK Pro, a Seoul-based website that monitors North Korea. <\/p>\n<p>He has examined commercial satellite imagery and footage released by state media and he says discrepancies in weather, sunlight, and other factors suggest the launch shown by North Korea happened on another day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been able to determine that there\u2019s some sort of deception going on, but the question remains: did they test another Hwasong-17 and they\u2019re just not showing us, or did they test something else?\u201d Zwirko said.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S.-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) concluded that some of the North Korean footage is most likely from a test on the morning of March 16 that South Korea said failed shortly after launch, exploding in midair over Pyongyang. North Korea never acknowledged that launch or a failure.<\/p>\n<p>South Korea\u2019s Yonhap news agency has cited unnamed sources who said intelligence officials in Seoul and Washington believed that North Korea then tested a Hwasong-15 ICBM on Thursday, an older and slightly smaller type it had last launched in late 2017.<\/p>\n<p>South Korea\u2019s defense ministry has not confirmed that conclusion. On Friday, a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, deflected when asked whether the latest launch was really the new missile.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know this is a test of a long-range ballistic missile and clearly they try to learn from each of these tests to try to develop their capability further,\u201d the official said. \u201cBut I am going to refrain from talking about it too specifically as we\u2019re still analyzing our own intelligence on it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>North Korea has a history of doctoring footage or reusing old images, but it would be \u201ca whole new level\u201d if they were lying about the successful test of a major new weapon such as the Hwasong-17, Zwirko said. North Korea has not responded to any outside reports that the launch may have been deceptive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s likely that the March 16 launch was meant to have been the inaugural launch of the Hwasong-17, but it failed shortly after ignition,\u201d said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. \u201cThis left the North Koreans with sufficient video footage and imagery to build a propaganda narrative after the March 24 launch succeeded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The March 24 missile may have featured a light payload, or none at all, to achieve a higher altitude and longer flight time than the 2017 Hwasong-15 test, he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe North Korean state media report included specific numbers on how high and far the missile flew, suggesting that there was an intent to engineer a launch that would look\u00a0like a larger missile than the Hwasong-15, even if it wasn\u2019t,\u201d Panda said.<\/p>\n<p>Hong Min, director of North Korean Research Division of Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said no matter which ICBM was tested, North Korea has proved it can launch missiles that can strike the far side of the planet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will need to check thoroughly if the video was fabricated, but it\u2019s not like the threat is reduced at all,\u201d Hong said.<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington and Heejung Jung in Seoul. Editing by Gerry Doyle)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FILE PHOTO: An overview of what state media reports is the launch of the &#8220;Hwasong-17&#8221; intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in this undated photo released on March 25, 2022 by North<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1403646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1403646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1403646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1403646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1403646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}