North Korea photos suggest new solid-fuel missile designs
TOKYO — North Korea’s state media released photos Wednesday that appear to show the designs of one or possibly two new missiles.
Concept diagrams of the missiles were seen hanging on a wall behind leader Kim Jong Un while he visited a plant that makes solid-fuel engines for the country’s ballistic-missile program.
One of the photos clearly showed a diagram for a missile called “Pukguksong-3,” which appears to be the latest in its Pukguksong, or Polaris, series. The other was harder to discern, though it carried a “Hwasong,” or Mars, designation name.
The photos were carried in the morning edition of the Rodong Sinmun, the ruling party’s newspaper, and released by the Korean Central News Agency just two days after the United States and South Korea began annual military exercises that the North claims are a rehearsal for war.