If North Korea’s test of its longest-range missile in five years was not worrying enough, the state’s official media released images showing the Earth it said were taken in space from a rocket designed to deliver a nuclear warhead.
Images of the weekend launch of its Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile were splashed on the country’s biggest newspaper yesterday.
The photographs were taken “by a camera installed at the missile warhead” and released by the country’s Academy of Defense Science, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The veracity of the images has not been independently verified.
The missile North Korea fired on Sunday reached a height of about 2,000km, Japan and South Korea reported, the highest apogee of any North Korean missile since 2017.
It has a range of about 4,500km, according to weapons experts, which means it could hit US military bases in Guam.
Pyongyang has so far released two images that appeared to be taken from a camera on the missile re-entry vehicle looking back at the planet, as well as images of the launch.
Weapons expert Ankit Panda said North Korea has previously shown images of the Earth from a missile, with the first time being in May 2017.
Panda, a senior fellow in the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in specialist publication NK News that the launch also marked the 13th flight test of a new rocket engine.
That technology was tested twice last month when North Korea launched a new maneuverable re-entry vehicle-equipped missile.
Prior to the Sunday launch, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had threatened to end his hiatus on tests of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles designed to deliver warheads to the US mainland that he put in place after 2017 to facilitate talks with then-US president Donald Trump.
North Korea has also resumed plutonium-producing operations at its main Yongbyon nuclear site last year, while satellite imagery showed it expanding a plant that enriches uranium for weapons.
Shin Beom-chul, a researcher at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said the images indicated North Korea’s confidence in its technological capability to target Guam.
NETWORK-MAPPING PROJECT: The database contains 170 detailed files of Taiwanese politicians and about 23 million records of household registration data in Taiwan China has developed a network-mapping project targeting political figures and parties in Taiwan to monitor public opinion during elections and to craft tailored influence campaigns aimed at dividing Taiwanese society, according to documents leaked by Chinese technology firm GoLaxy (中科天璣). The documents, collected by Taipei-based Doublethink Lab, showed a database was specifically created to gather detailed information on Taiwanese political figures, including their political affiliations, job histories, birthplaces, residences, education, religion and a brief biography about them. Several notable Taiwanese politicians are in the database, including President William Lai (賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍),
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
UPGRADED MISSILE: The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology is reportedly to conduct a live-fire test of the Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile on Thursday next week The US Army is planning to build new facilities to boost explosives production and strengthen its supply chain, a move aimed at addressing munitions shortages and supporting obligations to partners including Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel, Defense News reported. The army has issued a sources sought notice for a proposed Center of Excellence at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, the report said. The facility would serve as a hub within the US industrial base for the production of key military explosives, including research department explosives (RDX) and high melting explosives (HMX), while also supporting research and development of next-generation materials. The proposed
SOUTH KOREA DISPUTE: If Seoul continues to ignore its request, Taiwan would change South Korea’s designation on its arrival cards, the foreign ministry said If South Korea does not reply appropriately to a request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, the government would take corresponding measures to change how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. Taipei has asked Seoul to change the wording. Since March 1, South Koreans who hold government-issued Alien Resident Certificates (ARC) have been identified as from “South Korea” rather than the “Republic of Korea,” the
RSS