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North Korea, 2001
This IKONOS commercial satellite image of North Korea's No Dong
missile test pad represented the first use of high-resolution
commercial satellite imagery by a non-governmental organization
(NGO) to independently examine a facility that concerned the U.S.
intelligence community. The Federation of American Scientists
ordered and published this image to influence public opinion. This
and related images revealed that No Dong is rather unimpressive
compared to missile programs in other countries; it's small compared
to missile launch sites elsewhere in the world, and it only has a
dirt road leading to it, for instance. Hardliners in the U.S.
government who had been agitating about the North Korean missile
program withheld releasing the image for fear the public might
conclude that the North Korean missile program was not as advanced
as the intelligence community and legislative supporters of missile
defense claimed. In the image, the circle in the center is the
missile launch platform, while the diagonal dark rectangle below it
is the shadow cast by the missile erector.
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