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North Korea Ballistic Missile Explodes On Launch Fourth Straight Time
Earlier this week, the state media of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) broadcasted video of leader Kim Jong Un watching what appears to have been a successful launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. That was all fabricated, according to analysts. According to them, the launch actually took place in April. It is believed that the video was broadcasted as "an attempt to demonstrate North Korea's nuclear threat as a senior DPRK official meets with China this week." Ars Technica reports: The video was broadcast just after analyst reports said North Korea had made a fourth failed attempt in two months to test-launch the Musudan -- a missile designed to strike at targets as distant as Guam and the Philippines. The missile exploded on launch. Earlier on April 15, North Korea's military attempted a launch from a mobile launching system, but it exploded shortly after liftoff. Just two weeks later, as North Korea was preparing for the congress of the Worker's Party, there was an attempt at a dual launch -- with both missiles crashing into the sea.
The idea is interesting but it doesn't really work. I know you are probably joking, but just to be clear the missile blew up very shortly after launch. . In atmosphere the effective range of laser weapons is short. 20 km is a generally safe upper estimate on range. See the Boeing YAL-1 for more detail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_YAL-1. And a failure due to a laser would be highly noticeable in the debris and nature of the explosion and even if the laser wasn't visible in the regular spectrum, it would very likely show up on infrared. North Korea is definitely paying very close attention to their borders, and especially near where the rockets are being launched. It isn't clear to me where this launch occurred from. They have two main launch areas. Mof their launches are either from Tonghae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonghae_Satellite_Launching_Ground or Sohae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sohae_Satellite_Launching_Station and neither one is that far from China. Sohae is in fact very close. If the US had developed anti-missile lasers, it seems unlikely they would want to use them this way on China's backdoor at this time.
That said, it wouldn't surprise me incredibly if some sort of ongoing sabotage has been at work. But for it to be a laser that would mean that many fundamental aspects of the technology would need to have been drastically improved in a very short time, and that they would then think this was a good enough use to to risk it