It’s not unusual for small dictatorships to provide displays of force in their own country, this usually is enough to convince their countrymen (and women) that they are a mighty force to be reckoned with, that any deviation from the regime will not be tolerated, and that it will be crushed like an eggshell with an anvil, a snake with a boot, a tooth with a hockey puck.
What is more unusual though, is when images of military technology is leaked outside of the country, sometimes on purpose, and that specialists look at the photos and proclaim the weapons to be fake. This is what has happened with North Korea. After their failed “space rocket” launch earlier this month, North Korea’s army has made a point of making incredible claims. On Wednesday, Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho claimed his country is capable of defeating the United States “at a single blow.” And on Monday, North Korea promised “special actions” that would reduce Seoul’s government to ashes within minutes.
Sadly for their credibility, when specialists looked at their armament’s photos, they found them to be inadequate mockups. The rockets 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.
They might have well be made of “paper-mache.”
