Spy Photos
11. 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 launch sites in other countries; it's smaller, for instance, and has
only a dirt road leading to it. Hardliners in the U.S. government who had been
agitating about the North Korean missile program withheld releasing the image
out of concern that 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.