Showcasing its push to develop long-range nuclear missiles despite international sanctions, secretive North Korea is revealing details of its weapons development program for the first time ahead of a rare ruling party Congress next month.

With foreign governments and experts relying on satellite imagery, tiny samples of atomic particles collected after nuclear tests and mangled parts and materials recovered from long-range rocket launches, information on the North’s weapons program was hard to come by until recently.

Articles published by North Korea in the last month or so now contain technicolor photographic detail on a range of tests and other activities that point to fast-paced efforts to build a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Convincing the world, and its own people, of its nuclear prowess is as important as the prowess itself for Pyongyang, believe many analysts to be the reason for the revelations. Despite this the true capabilities and intentions of North Korea still remain unknown.

“Close-up pictures of ground test activities are almost unprecedented from the DPRK,” John Schilling, an aerospace engineer specializing in satellite and launch vehicle propulsion systems, told Reuters.

DPRK, which is the acronym for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, has conducted four nuclear tests in the past 10 years, the last in January.

“The openness suggests that the underlying strategy is as much diplomatic as military: it is important to Pyongyang not only that they have these capabilities, but that we believe they have these capabilities,” Schilling said.

The country had carried out a successful test of a new ICBM engine, North Korean state media reported on Saturday in its latest revelations. The engines of two Soviet-designed R-27 missiles clustered together, ejecting two exhaust plumes were showcased in the pictures.

Michael Elleman, a U.S.-based rocket expert with the International Institute for Strategic Studies said that North Korea’s claims despite stern warnings from Washington and elsewhere and last month’s United Nations sanctions indicate that the country has no intention of slowing down.

“The revelations, pronouncements and ‘tests’ appear to be part of a campaign to establish the narrative that Pyongyang has, or will soon have, a nuclear-armed, long-range missile that could threaten the U.S. mainland. Each unveiling, if real, would be part of a structured program aimed at developing the capability. The open question is: How real are these tests?,” he said.

North Korea’s capability may be more advanced than previously thought is what is increasingly becoming a strong feeling among international arms experts. A U.S. government source with intelligence on the North’s weapons program said that it could have a primitive but operable ICBM “later this decade”.

Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul argued that with significant domestic propaganda value ahead of the May ruling party congress and fueling alarm for its neighbors and the United States may be the intended effect.

“To a normal military, arms development is supposed to be classified. But Kim Jong Un had years of the South and the U.S. putting his military down, so now he wants to maximize the perceived threat of what he’s trying to develop,” he said.

A solid-fuel rocket engine and a simulated test of atmospheric re-entry of a missile warhead in March preceded the recent ICBM engine test.

(adapted from reuters.com)

Categories: Geopolitics