As lethal border clashes erupted between Pakistan and Afghanistan in early October 2025, a picture of a missile circulated on-line with customers falsely claiming that it depicted a profitable take a look at launch by Kabul. Nonetheless, the image was launched in 2023 by North Korea’s state information company, which stated it confirmed a strategic cruise missile.
“Afghanistan’s defence forces have efficiently examined a missile able to hitting a goal as much as 400 kilometres away,” reads an Urdu-language publish on X shared on October 17.
Combating between the 2 neighbours broke out after explosions in Kabul on October 9, with the Taliban authorities blaming the blasts on Pakistan and launching a retaliatory border offensive (archived hyperlink).
Days of fierce clashes killed greater than 70 individuals and wounded tons of on either side — their deadliest row for the reason that Taliban returned to energy in 2021 (archived hyperlink).
Related claims to the one shared within the X publish additionally proliferated on Fb and Instagram.
Screenshot of the false publish taken on October 28, 2025, with a purple cross added by AFP
Nonetheless, there have been no official stories Afghanistan testing a missile throughout the October battle.
A reverse picture search led to an article by The Enterprise Customary from March 19, 2023 — titled, “N Korea launches missile into sea amid US-S Korea drills” — which has the identical picture (archived hyperlink).
It’s captioned: “A strategic cruise missile is launched throughout a drill on this undated photograph launched on February 24, 2023 by North Korea’s Korean Central Information Company (KCNA).”
The caption of the identical uncropped photograph distributed on the AFP platform says the picture was taken on the above date and reveals the strategic cruise missile throughout a drill (archived hyperlink).
Screenshot comparability of the false publish (L) and the AFP photograph handout (R), with the purple X added by AFP
North Korean forces held a “strategic cruise missile launching drill” within the early hours of February 23, 2023, firing 4 Hwasal-2s, in keeping with an AFP report citing KCNA (archived hyperlink).
The train demonstrated North Korea’s “lethal nuclear counterattack functionality towards the hostile forces”, KCNA stated on the time.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have had frosty relations for the reason that Taliban’s return, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of harbouring militant teams that stage cross-border terror assaults.
After an preliminary 48-hour ceasefire between the warring neighbours lapsed, a second truce emerged on October 19 following talks in Doha, mediated by Qatar and Turkey.
However Pakistan stated on October 27 that negotiations for a long-lasting truce with Afghanistan had “did not deliver a couple of workable resolution” (archived hyperlink).
AFP has beforehand debunked misinformation concerning the latest Afghanistan-Pakistan battle.
