Analysts: North Korea's Missiles Are Fake

If the missiles North Korea triumphantly unveiled at a parade last week are the ones that are supposed to defeat the US in a "single blow," then Washington has nothing to worry about. The missiles, which were saved for the end of the parade and trotted out on the biggest launch vehicles ever seen in North Korea, aren't just fakes, they're really bad fakes, a jumble of components that couldn't possibly fly together, experts tell the AP.

The missiles' casings suggest metal too thin to withstand a launch; they wouldn't have even fit on the launchers carrying them; and they were all a little different, though they were supposed to be the same make. "It remains unknown if they were designed this way to confuse foreign analysts, or if the designers simply did some sloppy work," an arms control paper concluded. One physicist posits that they could be "somewhat clumsy representations of a missile that is being developed," but others doubt North Korea has the money to build the missiles at all. (More North Korea stories.)