<figure id="attachment_248244" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2160px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-248244"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="197054c2"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/06/aflo_18.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-248244" class="wp-caption-text">Kim Jong-un walks in front of a ballistic missile (Image: KNS/KCNA/AFP/Afro)</figcaption></figure>
The eerie silence continues.
North Korea has already conducted 17 missile tests this year, and on June 5, eight short-range ballistic missiles, launched from four different locations in a 35-minute period, fell into Japan&#8217;s exclusive economic zone. The U.S. State Department&#8217;s Special Representative for North Korea, Song Kim, expressed the following opinion at a press conference on June 7: &#8220;North Korea has been conducting nuclear tests at any time.
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 The North Koreans could conduct a nuclear test at any time. It has apparently completed preparations at Punggye-ri (in the north, where the nuclear test site is located) and appears ready to do so at a moment&#8217;s notice.
North Korea is taking an increasingly hard-line stance toward the outside world. However, there is something unusual going on at home.
 Since the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on May 4, the domestic media have not reported anything about it. The official newspaper of the Workers&#8217; Party of Korea (WPK), the Workers&#8217; Party of Korea Newspaper, and the Korean Central News Agency have been completely silent. This is extremely unusual. In the past, North Korea has publicized images of its weapons and their power to the media on the day after a missile launch. They had been making a big show of their achievements,&#8221; said a reporter from a South Korean newspaper.
<h2>With some people starving to death: &#8230;&#8230;</h2>
Why is North Korea refraining from domestic media coverage of its successful missile launch? Ko Yong Ki, editor-in-chief of Daily NK Japan and an expert on the situation on the Korean Peninsula, explains.
 North Korean authorities have not announced the missile launch, but there are many residents in the northern border region with China who have relatively close contact with the outside world and are aware of the information. Widespread among them is a strong opposition to the expensive missile launch (according to an announcement by the think tank &#8220;South Korea National Defense Research,&#8221; the cost of North Korea&#8217;s missile launch this year was about 87 billion yen).
 The spread of the new coronavirus has led to a shortage of medicines in the country, and food shortages have worsened as a result of the lockdown. In some areas, people are even starving to death. There is growing dissatisfaction among the people, wondering whether it is necessary to conduct missile tests under such circumstances. North Korea may be trying to avoid such a growing backlash by making a big deal out of it.
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Gao continues, &#8220;The reason is not only the people&#8217;s dissatisfaction.
 Another possible factor is the development of clandestine new technology. Leader Kim Jong-un may be thinking, &#8220;No matter how successful we are in launching conventional missiles, we will never be able to launch them. No matter how successful he is in launching conventional missiles, he can no longer boast about it. It is no longer a surprise to report, but a matter of course.
 What they are focusing on is probably the development of more accurate missiles and more powerful nuclear bombs. Silence is a very dangerous sign. North Korea tends to pursue its research on powerful weapons in secret. It may be using its missile tests as a cover to develop a formidable military capability that would surprise the world.
Is the silence in North Korea the calm before the storm?

 KNS/KCNA/AFP/Afro

 North Korea has repeatedly conducted missile tests. Seventeen times this year. There are also signs of a nuclear test. But there has been no news coverage of these tests in North Korea. Why the silence? Behind the eerie silence lies a horrifying story.

North Korea’s “No Domestic Press Coverage” Reason for Fear: A Series of Missiles and Signs of Nuclear Tests…

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