nuclear-news

Did North Korea fake its footage of submarine-launched ballistic missile?

Claims North Korea faked test footage to hide ‘catastrophic failure’ of submarine-launched ballistic missile, ABC News 14 Jan 15  Experts analysing footage released by North Korea last week showing the firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile say the images appear to be faked. In defiance of a United Nations ban, North Korea said it tested ballistic missile technology that would allow it to launch a nuclear warhead from a submarine.

North Korea released the submarine launch footage after it separately conducted a fourth nuclear weapons test on January 6.

Two days later, North Korean state television aired footage of the submarine test which it said took place in December.

Unlike a previous submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test in May, it was not announced at the time.

At the weekend, South Korea’s military said North Korea appeared to have modified the video and edited it with Scud missile footage from 2014.

However, an official said the ejection technology might have improved since that test.

Now, analysis by the California-based James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) shows two frames of the state media video where flames engulf the missile and small parts of its body break away.

“The rocket ejected, began to light, and then failed catastrophically,” CNS senior research associate Melissa Hanham said.

“North Korea used heavy video editing to cover over this fact.”

Ms Hanham said North Korea state media used different camera angles and editing to make it appear the launch was several continuous launches, when in fact it was a single event.

Launch likely from barge, not submarine: expert

She said the CNS study showed editors used rudimentary techniques to crop and flip old video footage of an earlier SLBM test and Scud missile launch.

John Schilling, an aerospace engineer who is a specialist in satellite and launch vehicle propulsion systems, said it appeared from the video that the launch was conducted from a submerged barge rather than a submarine…….

Crispin Rovere, an Australia-based nuclear policy and arms control specialist, said the 5.1-magnitude tremor detected at the North’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site was too small to support Pyongyang’s claim.

“The seismic data that’s been received indicates that the explosion is probably significantly below what one would expect from an H-bomb test,” Mr Rovere said.

“So, initially, it seems to be that they’ve successfully conducted a nuclear test but unsuccessfully completed the second-stage hydrogen explosion.”

This test came just two days before leader Kim Jong-un’s birthday. Analysts said the leader had been looking for a major achievement to highlight at a rare ruling party congress scheduled for May, the first gathering of its kind for 35 years. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-13/claims-north-korea-faked-missile-test-footage/7085094

January 15, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | North Korea, weapons and war