This May 4 file photo from North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows a test of its military's "new tactical guided weapon." Experts say it appears to be a modified version of a Russian Iskander short-range ballistic missile (SRBM). KCNA-Yonhap

By Jung Da-min

While the government has remained cautious to confirm whether a missile was fired in North Korea's launch of multiple projectiles last week, experts have widely agreed that it was the North's first missile launch since November 2017.

Multiple analyses based on the photos of projectiles released by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) show North Korea launched what appears to be a "new missile" that bears outward similarities to a Russian Iskander short range ballistic missile (SRBM) which has a range of about 280 kilometers when carrying a 450-500 kilogram warhead.

"Photographs of the missile look remarkably like those of a Russian-produced Iskander, suggesting that North Korea imported the missile either directly from Moscow, or through a third party," said a report released Wednesday by 38 North, a North Korea monitoring website run by the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center, noting that Moscow is permitted to export the Iskander-E, one version of the Iskander missile specifically designed and produced for export.

"It would not be too surprising for [North Korea's] engineers to develop a smaller, shorter-range missile resembling the Iskander."

Katsuhisa Furukawa, a former member of the United Nations Panel of Experts, also said that it is highly likely that the North's weapons test involved a ballistic missile, according to Japan's Asahi Shimbun report, Wednesday.

Furukawa said the controversial weapon's external appearance is very similar to that of a modified version of the Iskander and the white smoke and intense light at the time of launch are characteristics of the solid fuel used for the Russian SRBM.