Schiller, who wrote a detailed report questioning advances in North Korea’s missile program last year, said that images were just as unrealistic as those he saw when the Hwasong-13 made its debut in at an earlier parade in April 2012.

For example, he noted, there was no evidence on the rear of the Hwasong-13 of retro rockets necessary to separate the stages – critical if an ICBM is to reach sub-orbital space and strike distant targets.

Schiller also said varied features on the rockets – such differing placement of small guidance nozzles and hatches – are telling. They make him believe that these are not even training “simulators” but “crude fakes.”

Schiller said the North also seems to be trying to inflate the number of Hwasong-13s it claims to possess.