North Korea’s Missile Launch Photos Are Fakes, US Says

Photo Credit: Reuters Photos showing a North Korean missile launched from a submarine were manipulated by state propagandists, and the isolated country may still be years away from developing the technology, a top US military official said Tuesday.

North Korea, heavily sanctioned by the United States and United Nations for its missile and nuclear tests, said May 9 it had successfully conducted an underwater test-fire of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, which, if true, would indicate progress in its pursuit of building missile-equipped submarines.

On Wednesday, the North warned Washington not to challenge its sovereign right to boost military deterrence and boasted of its ability to miniaturize nuclear warheads, a claim it has made before and which has been widely questioned by experts and never verified.

But Pyongyang is still “many years” from developing submarine-launched ballistic missiles, US Admiral James Winnefeld told an audience at the Centre for Strategic & International Studies in Washington on Tuesday.

“They have not gotten as far as their clever video editors and spinmeisters would have us believe,” said Winnefeld, who is vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Read more from “North Korea’s Missile Launch Photos Are Fakes, US Says” HERE)

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