North Korea upgrades rocket launch site: U.S. think tank

Fresh satellite images show North Korea has completed upgrading its main satellite site to handle far larger rockets, suggesting a possible launch by the end of the year, a U.S. think tank said Thursday. “North Korea is now ready to move forward with another rocket launch,” the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said on its closely followed 38 North website. While stressing there was no evidence of a planned launch, the institute said Pyongyang now had the capability to send up a rocket by the end of 2014. Satellite analysis has shown a major construction programme underway at North Korea’s Sohae Satellite Launching Station since mid-2013, focused on upgrading facilities to handle larger, longer-range rockets with heavier payloads.

It remains unclear how successful these tests have been. However, rocket motor tests are typically conducted prior to full-scale test launches.

The U.S.-Korea Institute, on possible North Korean tests for an under-development intercontinental ballistic missile

The U.S.-Korea Institute believes the completed upgrade would allow the Sohae site to handle rockets of up to 50 metres in length – almost 70 percent longer than the Unha-3. But such a rocket is still believed to be several years from becoming operational, meaning that a repeat Unha-3 launch would be more likely in the short-term, the institute said. The latest images also suggested further engine-tests in August for an under-development intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Development of a working ICBM would be a game-changing step, bringing the continental United States into range and adding a whole new threat level to the North’s regular nuclear-strike warnings.

Asia-Pacific