North Korea on Saturday released launch images of a new surface-to-air missile that appears to be a home-grown version of the Patriot missile. The missile has an estimated range of 100 to 150 km and is aimed at repelling South Korean fighter jets.
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The North's official Rodong Sinmun daily carried about a dozen pictures of the missile being launched as their corpulent leader Kim Jong-un looked on.
Also seen in the photos are trucks loaded with three cylindrical launching tubes. They also show the missile flying obliquely shortly after the vertical launch before hitting the target in the air.
The launch technology is the same as that used for South Korea's new home-grown surface-to-air Cheongung missile.
The KN-06 was unveiled during a military parade marking the 65th anniversary of the Workers Party in Pyongyang in October 2010, but no images of the test launch were available. Military authorities here have noticed striking similarities to Russia's S-300 and China's HQ-9.
"The North probably didn't develop the missile and radar system completely on its own," an intelligence source here said. "Some equipment or technology may have been smuggled into the North from China, Russia or a third country that has S-300 missiles."
The publicity for the rocket seems to have been a response to recent South Korea-U.S. drills that practiced airstrikes on strategic North Korean facilities. |