The leaks from the Pentagon continue to spill ink on the Korean peninsula. After some documents have raised strong suspicions that Washington is listening to senior officials in the South Korean presidential office, it is North Korea’s turn to be concerned. According to American intelligence, some intercontinental ballistic missiles unveiled by Pyongyang during its last parade would not be operational, but would aim to exaggerate the threat that North Korea poses to the United States.
With our correspondent in Seoul, Nicholas Rocca
Never had Pyongyang unveiled as many intercontinental ballistic missiles as on February 8, 2023, but, according to Pentagon documents, some of them would be ” not operational “. On the occasion of a large military parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Korean People’s Army, eleven Hwasong 17 marched in front of Kim Jong-un and his daughter.
Several nuclear warheads
These weapon systems, theoretically capable of striking the entire American territory, would be armed with several nuclear warheads. Some experts feared that North Korea might be able to outmatch US missile defense capabilities. But this leaked document, the authenticity of which has not been confirmed, tempers the North Korean threat.
Doubt over North Korean production capacities
Many missiles unveiled during the parade would be dummy in order to ” present a larger and more efficient stock ” And ” to mitigate the risk of damaging real missiles “. We can also read there that Washington doubts the military production capacities of the regime. According to the document, “ North Korea probably won’t be able to equip all of its launchers with operational missiles (….) due to resource constraints » ; namely the international sanctions, and the isolation of the country since the start of the pandemic.
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