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Ng Han Guan / AP, file
In this photo taken on April 15, 2012, what appears to be a new missile is carried during a mass military parade at the Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea. The photo shows the warhead's surface is undulated, suggesting it's a thin metal sheet unable to withstand flight pressure, analysts say.
The Associated Press reports — Analysts who have studied photos of a half-dozen ominous new North Korean missiles showcased recently at a lavish military parade say they were fakes, and not very convincing ones, casting further doubt on the country's claims of military prowess.
The weapons displayed April 15 appear to be a mishmash of liquid-fuel and solid-fuel components that could never fly together. Undulating casings on the missiles suggest the metal is too thin to withstand flight. Each missile was slightly different from the others, even though all were supposedly the same make. They don't even fit the launchers they were carried on.
Ng Han Guan / AP, file
Adding more doubt to North Korea's claims of military prowess after its flamboyant rocket launch failure, analysts say the half dozen missiles showcased at the military parade were low-quality fakes.
"There is no doubt that these missiles were mock-ups," Markus Schiller and Robert Schmucker, of Germany's Schmucker Technologie, wrote in a paper posted recently on the website Armscontrolwonk.com that listed those discrepancies. "It remains unknown if they were designed this way to confuse foreign analysts, or if the designers simply did some sloppy work." Read the full story.
David Guttenfelder / AP, file
North Korean civilians, some weeping, wave flowers as they look up at Kim Jong Un, unseen, at the end of the military parade on April 15, 2012.
Richard Engel, NBC's chief foreign correspondent, shares a rare and revealing look inside the reclusive kingdom of North Korea.
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I can get one just like this at WALMART for $1.98. Just need some duct tape and a pair of scissors to put it together. Launchers sold seperately. Of course you need a couple of AA bateries.
I hope they blow themselves up.
hey dude dont diss duct tape its very usefull stuff.
From my blog at:
"Several days later I was fortunate enough to catch Richard Engels of NBC reporting from North
Korea. He, or someone on his news team, had been allowed access to the launch center control room and had taken videos of the supposed nerve center. Big mistake for the North Koreans. Perhaps they were impressed with oscilloscope displays of analog signals, probably the North Korean Military band playing patriotic marches, but I simply stared at three large-screen displays showing absolute nonsense in utter amazement. The control room was barren by anyone who has launched a missile's standards. Sixteen technicians, or actors pretending to be technicians, sat in pairs at consoles arranged in two rows like a school room. A single, large screen display dominated the center of the room. It looked exactly like a set from an old James Bond movie. My first impression was that the real control room was located somewhere else, probably China. I could hardly wait to see the launch, if it ever proceeded that far.
So, on April 12th, it was with mild amusement I listened to frowning, serious American newscasters explain the North Korean missile lifted off but destroyed itself less than 90 seconds into its flight. I'm surprised it got that far. Perhaps the band quit playing and the displays in the control room went blank.
Darn Chinese knock-offs! Ah-so, screwed again!
It's more for propaganda to maintain the illusion over their own people than to garner fear from the rest of the world. The higher ups in Korea realize they are a pretty useless country of people
I agree. Kim Jong Un is still an unknown quantity by his people, and, for that matter, his military. In country run soley as a cult of personality for the better part of 60 years, he has to show some swagger if he's going to maintain his grip. The US food aid which has saved them from mass starvation is characterized as "tributes from a terrified nation." Unless he can give his people some reason to think we are terrified, he can't really sell that line the next time we start shipping bags of wheat and rice to keep them all from dying.
Probably made in China with duck tape and spray paint...................................
This is how we beat the Russkies at their own game, during the cold war. Every May day, those dumb @!$%#s would roll out all of their weapons for the entire world to see. Once our government found out that the Soviets were total fakes, their whole world collasped.
uhhhh dude they fell apart from fighting in afghan and the strain of full blown war when fighting insurgents. hmmmmm i wonder what might have been a factor in our own finacial collapse.
Another surprise coming from a country who's media claimed that Kim Jong Il had 5 hole in ones his very first time golfing. They said their supreme leader was better than Tiger Woods...
I feel really sorry for their people. Their government needs to be toppled!
Maybe they watched the Borgias with their fake cannons!
These may be mock ups just to impress their own people. However I believe they have others that are real albeit smaller ones. They do have intermediate range missiles in their arsenal that poses a threat to S. Korea, and Japan. This is a very dangerous country and should not be underestimated by anyone.
Gee, wasn't it last week they said North Korea probably had over a dozen nukes aimed and ready...now they're saying they are probably fake....keep the people in fear and make light of the issue and necessity of war.....and we think North Korea is full of propaganda, so is America, we have the media and bull@!$%# analyst...we don't want peace, America wants to control the world.....it's called hegemony. Sad that people believe all the crap the media feeds you........and you all have the solution to the problem, more death, kill them....boy are you all puppets and sheep...playing into the hands of American propaganda......what happen to all the "Hoodie News" not popular this week? Sad....
i highly doubt they would parade their actual missles about because 1) its not completely safe 2) in their minds the missles are needed elsewhere and 3) they probebly want to show off more missles then they have actually got. also again may i stress that i find the number of "NUKE NORTH KOREA" comments here offensive as 1) it only proves my theory that amaricans (the radical right wing at any rate) are obsessed with who has the bigger dick 2) they want to continue our exspansionest policys which inevitably leads back to #1 and 3) they are scared out of their @!$%# filled pants from being force fed "we are in danger from weeboo commies" bull crap from the media which is relavent to both point 1 and 2.
Your #1 is a joke right or you history sucks! WW2 we the allies used decoys to bolster our numbers of tanks and equipment to keep the Germans guessing. USSR used fake missile launchers to confuse us. The USA built fake missile silo's to give USSR false targets. The term is called mutual assured annihilation (no one wins) when you start playing with nukes its not safe. The thought of North Korea having and deploying them should scare YOU! I support your #2 and 3. The rest of that trash you posted after is someone who's head is up there A** in a bad way. USE SPELL CHECKER preschooler :)
Its all fun and games until somebody shoots a missle over the DMZ...............
Fun OK unless its a nuke then I'm sure we have one of our boomer subs close enough to solve all of there problems forever.
What do you expect from missile that's named 'type-o-dong'? Of course it's surface has to be undulated. After all, what type o dong would it be if it wasn't?
There are many ways to fight a war and the world should just not cave into the North Koreans. Everytime something happens with the people of North Korea the world comes to its aid, and when the North Korean's do something against the world that is disliked they enforce their sanctions. The world needs to stick with the sanctions and quit caving in. If it means that North Koreans will starve, then so be it. The world is spending too much time and effort to appease the North, if its stop so does North Korea. Keep the sanctions intact till North Korea surrenders, unconditionally, if that means everyone dying then so be it.
It's nice to know that MSNBC, got a hold of a fake picture.
1. That's a modified British Stryker unit.
2. The North Korean military does not use western numericals on their missles.
3. The billboard to the right of the nose cone is written in english, and not north korean hiroglyphs.
Once again, MSNBC reporters did not do their homework. Or at least the @!$%# that set the picture up for the story.
I didn't find the missile launcher in the Brigades vehicles and nothing with more than 8 tires with that cab design or layout. I'm also not saying your wrong but North Korea maybe copied a Russian/China Mobile launcher BADLY as there stuff works.
Stryker vehicles
Wow! North Korea missials made of pig s()t. Oh hey! North Korea = Pig S()t.
dude get a @!$%#ing life and actualy post something that isnt horse manure. besides what your doing is whats called "trolling a wall" meaning that your trying to troll some 1 who isnt even here.
so that make you a trolling roller spotter no reply required
Bugs bunny Atlas Ajax Model Rockets built in North Korea, we have known for many years these guys build lots of fake crap the real stuff costs too much. That's one picture they shouldn't have let out because we do know how to build them so spotting a fake in this case was EZ. Nice tires those Goodyear by any chance?
Maybe N. Korean leaders are just as fake.
I know the leaders in THE USA are FAKES.
They are not real leaders.
Since you know our leaders are fakes, perhaps you could spread your message of good will to all the nations of the world where you believe their leaders are also fakes, OH GREAT AND WISE ONE.
ah... we learn well from obozo-san
Kim Jong Un may be the biggest Bozo-san in Country of Bozo-sans. (I bet he has been led to believe that these fake missiles are real)
who cares?? oboze will still apologize
who cares they cant get the U.S.
That whole N. Korean government is one big fake and joke, just like our current leader and congress, so what else is new.......God how I long for the days of Ronald Reagan and some truth and honesty
Iran contra or memory loss is normal for your age group there is more but Mitt might get upset.
Any proof of that? No! Just keep talking smack and piss them off even more.
Can't learn the first time? If you didn't run your mouth about the first missile messing up. Maybe they wouldn't be doing what they're doing at the moment.
Of course Americans have big mouths and always got a opinion about something. Keep talking and you'll see, morons.
Who peed in your Cheerios?
N. Korea is the ones that threaten there neighbors with holy war total destruction there words not mine
The leaders of North Korea are a bunch of fakes
Yet they are bluffing the six party talks and the UN
Time to call their hand?
Whats wrong with China? No initiative, No balls.
North Korea is nothing but a joke. I mean, they can't even their own people without foreign food aid...Like the US.
Problem?
North Korea is nothing but a joke. I mean, they can't even FEED their own people without foreign food aid...Like the US. (?) we send food so your point is WHAT? sorry had to fix this cats post
Problem?