As reported here a day or two after it’s unveiling, during Kim Il Sung’s totally freaky military style 100th birthday bash, North Korea’s previously unknown three stage transporter erector launcher (TEL) mobile ballistic missile is almost certainly a prop, and not a very good one at that. In other words, the Oscar for best set design and special effects will not go to the imagineers over at the North Korean Army this year. Further, there is clearly no developmental continuity for such a system as they cannot even get their large liquid fueled, fixed launch site dependent, Taepodong-2/Unha-3 derived system to it’s final destination after three test launches. The only way such a system would be legitimate is if the North Koreans actually had it designed and built illegally in Russia or China. The real scary part is that the North Koreans actually think it is worth their time to create such an obvious ruse. In other words they must think the free world is very, very stupid. So is life inside the wondrous Hermit Kingdom I guess…
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/04/26/north-koreas-new-missiles-are-fakes/
http://news.yahoo.com/analysts-north-koreas-missiles-fakes-061325872.html
Original Aviationintel Report:
http://aviationintel.com/2012/04/16/fear-loathing-in-north-korea-the-age-of-kim-jong-un-is-upon-us/
*Big thanks to Ty for shooting this over!
The original paper by Schiller and Schmucker is here if you’re interested (http://lewis.armscontrolwonk.com/files/2012/04/KN-08_Analysis_Schiller_Schmucker.pdf)