A top U.S. military official strongly suggested Tuesday that North Korea manipulated a video of its recent test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile to exaggerate progress in its SLBM development.
"Just a few weeks ago, we saw Pyongyang raving about a test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile capability. Fortunately, they've not gone as far as their clever video editors and spinmeisters would have us believe," Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr., vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"They are many years away from developing this capability," he said.
The North claimed earlier this month that leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a successful underwater test-launch of a "strategic submarine ballistic missile." The test, if confirmed, would represent a significant step forward in the North's missile technology.
But last week, Joseph Bermudez, a top North Korea military expert, claimed that the North is believed to have test-fired the missile from a submerged barge, not from a submarine, and that the North appears to have "photoshopped" images of the test to exaggerate progress.
Despite the manipulation, Winnefeld stressed a North Koren SLBM could be a serious threat.
"If they are eventually able to do so, it will present a hard-to-detect danger for Japan, South Korea as well as our servicemembers stationed in the region. This only reinforces the importance of regional ballistic missile defense," he said.
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