Just to clarify, the pics and the article are not from the same source. Sorry, I should have made that clear. The article had no pics, so I put two on from a Google image search, chosen mostly because they were the right size.
Is that a Red Arrow peeking out from behind it's nose ?
Front end looks a bit of an after thought to me. Almost as though it was designed by a different team to that which designed the back end and the wings ?
Most of the thing is so like a Shin-Meiwa that it's hard to believe they weren't at least consultants on the project. The nose looks like somebody crossed a Be-200 with a Be-40 Albatross and grafted it on.