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On September 20, North Korean media claimed Pyongyang tested successfully of a new rocket engine.
President Kim Jong-un inspected it and praised military officers, scientists and technicians were gained scientific advances.
North Korea’s rocket engines, though to be necessary to launch satellites into space, as well as be used for nuclear weapons hit long-range targets, including U.S mainland.
Mr. Joshua Pollack, an editor of the US-based Nonproliferation Review, the rocket engine in suspicion is of the same type used by the former USSR’s multi-warhead missile tests.
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| North Korea Kim Jong-un inspected a missile test (Photo: Reuters) |
"The engine tested in April appears to be the first-stage engine from the KN-08 [long-range] ICBM displayed on March 9, alongside a nuclear warhead," he said.
“The new engine has a modified design and could provide the basis for a significantly larger rocket than before," the Sputnik quoted his comment.
There are difficulties in using a big and heavy rocket to an ICBM. A rocket of this kind is immobile, making it impossible for military purpose, experts explained.
"[The additional 40-50 percent of thrust] make it somewhat overpowered for any missile North Korea could put on a mobile transporter," according to John Schilling, an aerospace engineer and expert on North Korea's missile program.
"If North Korea were interested in building large, immobile missiles, they would not have devoted so much of their resources to a submarine-launched missile system that is the very antithesis of ‘large and immobile,'" Schilling said.
"So this engine is likely not meant for a missile at all, but rather a space launch vehicle”, Schilling said to Russian media.
North Korea has continued to conduct missile program, despite UN sanctions imposed on the country since its first nuclear test in 2006.
