North Korea completely silent after apparent missile explosion over Pyongyang

South Korea said a projected ballistic missile detonated mid air soon After it was launched from the international airport near Pyongyang on Wednesday morning.

North Korea’s government did not immediately comment on the South’s report, and state media made no mention of testing a day later.

Amazingly, despite the missile explosion in a city of about three million people, no photographs or named eyewitnesses were publicly revealed.

Human rights activists said the silence underscores the government’s complete control over communications in the country.

“We shouldn’t be shocked by how ridiculous and humiliating this is because it’s North Korea,” said Liberty’s Sokil Park in NK, who helped North Korean defectors.

Debris fell in or near Pyongyang after a failed test, Seoul-based NK News reported, citing unnamed witnesses and a photo that showed a red ball of smoke at the end of a zig-zagging plume in the test. saw. In the sky above the city traced the rocket’s trajectory.

The website did not release the image, citing the need to protect the source.

“If it was London, Istanbul or Seoul, imagine our newsfeed – full of videos, images and eyewitness accounts,” Park said. “But this was Pyongyang, so there isn’t a single public image or video. A complete visual blackout for a major explosion in the sky over the Asian capital in 2022.”

Cell phones have proliferated in North Korea in recent years, but the government keeps tight controls on phone networks and Internet connections, most of which are not connected to the outside world.

The country’s isolation has deepened amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with cross-border travel and communication with China shut down, and many foreign embassies and international aid organizations forced to pull their staff from the country .

This story has been published without modification in text from a wire agency feed. Only the title has been changed.