Originally Posted by
BFSGrad
Impossible to keep a missile test “quiet” for several reasons:
1. For U.S. missile tests, the U.S. still provides notifications to Russia under the 1988 Ballistic Missile Launch Notification Agreement.
2. For U.S. and UK sub missile tests, Notice to Mariners (and NOTAM) are announced with closure areas for the launch zone.
3. A large ballistic missile after launch makes a highly detectable thermal signature. Any country with the appropriate space-based assets can detect such an event.
Easier to keep the results of a missile test quiet, which is what the Brits did for the 2016 test.
There is also the issue that you need to let people know you're doing it, lest the other side mistake it for an
actual attack and respond in kind
.
Granted, NK has never been worried about that part, although I suspect they think of that more of a feature than a bug...