Experts: North Korean missiles look very similar to Russian Iskanders
The three new missiles recently tested by the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un look very similar to the Russian missiles that have been used in Syria, and which Russia has been trying to sell over the years, wrote the Associated Press.
After a pause with the ballistic missiles launches, which began in late 2017, the head of the DPRK personally supervised the launch of the first missile on Saturday and two more on Thursday.
According to experts, these missiles are very similar to the Iskander short-range ballistic missile, which has been used by Russia for more than ten years.
"There are Russian technology fingerprints all over it," said North Korean expert Markus Schiller about North Korean missiles.
In his opinion, if the assumption that North Korea has directly purchased these missiles from Russia is not true then North Korea could have received the components from a third party. He noted that DPRK showed a mock version of “Iskander” at a military parade in 2018.
According to the director of the Nonproliferation and Nuclear Policy Program of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Michael Elleman, further analysis of the characteristics of the launched missiles will make it possible to understand whether they were made in Russia.
In the second half of April, Kim Jong-un met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok. Among other things, they discussed "a peaceful solution of the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula"