North Korea was found to have tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from the midpoint of Pyongyang’s Sunan Airport. Last March, we chose a location close to the missile support facility as the launch site, but this time, we extended the range by launching from a location about 4 km further away. Reporter Ham Ji-ha reports. (Video commentary: Lee Sang-hoon / Video editing: Jo Myung-soo)
The spot where North Korea recently launched an intercontinental ballistic missile ICBM was found to be the midpoint between the civilian runway and the military runway at Sunan Airport in Pyongyang.
When analyzing the location of North Korea’s ICBM launch on the 18th, released by North Korean state media, and the surrounding topography and road shape in the area revealed in existing satellite images, significant similarities are found between the two.
At the time of the launch, the place where the North Korean TEL mobile launch vehicle was standing was a curved road, which is like a slightly curved road at this point.
In addition, the curved shape of the road located about 1km away from the launch site is similar, and the appearance of the field next to the launch site is the same, indicating that the two locations are the same place.
Experts also estimate this as the launch site.
David Schumler, a satellite imagery analyst and senior researcher at the James Martin Center for Anti-Proliferation, released a satellite photo of ‘Planet Labs’ taken on the day of its launch on his Twitter, and identified the black dot on the point as ‘burnt’. trace’.
This burn mark was not there until the day before, and is estimated to have been created when the ICBM was launched shortly before the satellite photo session that day burst into flames.
North Korea also used this spot as an ICBM launch site on the 3rd.
Reporter Colin Zwiko of ‘NK News’, a North Korean media outlet, recently identified a point on the road connecting the civilian runway and the military runway of Sunan Airport as the launch site on the 3rd on his Twitter account.
This spot is 500m west of where the launch took place this time.
Earlier in March, North Korea selected the area south of Sunan Airfield as an ICBM launch site.
In particular, the Shinri missile support facility is in the southern zone of Sunan Airport, and VOA confirmed that the launch took place about 800m in a straight line from this facility and 1.2km away when moving along the road.
The distance between the launch site at that time and the launch site this time is about 4 km in a straight line and about 4.8 km when moving along the road, which is further from the airport terminal building or aircraft apron than from the front.
In addition, it is estimated to have moved about 6 km along the road based on the Shinri missile support facility, which can be interpreted as the range of movement of the mobile launch vehicle is wider than before.
In the midst of this, the United States, which convened a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, promotes the statement of the chairman of the United Nations Security Council in response to North Korea’s ICBM launch.
After the adoption of a joint statement by the Security Council failed due to opposition from China and Russia, a spokesman for the US mission to the United Nations told VOA on the 22nd that the draft of the presidential statement prepared by the US would be shared soon. with members of the Security Council and discussions would begin.
This is VOA News Hamjiha.
