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Photoshopped?! Pyongyang Forged Photos of Latest ICBM Test – Expert (PHOTOS)

© REUTERS / KCNA A view of the newly developed intercontinental ballistic rocket Hwasong-15's test that was successfully launched is seen in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang November 30, 2017
A view of the newly developed intercontinental ballistic rocket Hwasong-15's test that was successfully launched is seen in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang November 30, 2017 - Sputnik International
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When North Korean state media outlets claimed to provide visual evidence of a Hwasong-15 mobile launched intercontinental ballistic missile test, the photos they used were fake, according an analysis of the stars featured in the photos.

Two pictures taken within seconds of the missile's launch from the same vantage point should show the same starry background, "but they don't," Marco Langbroek, a spy satellite tracker and Paleolithic archaeologist said in a December 5 blog post.

"One shows Orion, which is south-southwest," Langbroek said, and "the other shows Andromeda with the Andromeda galaxy… which is northwest," he noted.

​"These two images from the same viewpoint show dramatically opposite sky areas," the expert continued.

Of course, Langbroek doesn't deny that the event happened. Instead, the analyst concluded that the starry background was added to the photos and wasn't original. Not all images were tampered with, he noted.

​"The most likely reason is simple that they did it for aesthetics. An ICBM soaring into the stars makes for good propaganda images. They apparently just didn't care to do it correctly," he noted.

It's okay though, apparently other countries do this sort of thing, too.

Earlier in the year the Chinese People's Liberation Army published celebratory pictures of massive ships and high powered jets to commemorate the PLA's 68th anniversary. The only problem was that the pictures featured Russian MiG-35 aircraft and US-made amphibious vessels — modern implements of war. The PLA later apologized, marking the first time the Defense Ministry had atoned for its errors, the Global Times reported.

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