Speculation has been rising that Pyongyang could set off military provocations around October 10, the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, in order to strengthen national unity and show off its military strength to the outside world. Analyzing the images, the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said Tuesday that the construction, which started in spring 2015 at the Sohae launch center, has been concluded.
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“Despite the fact that the facility is ready after completing a construction programme begun in 2013, we still see no sign of preparations at the Sohae facility for an October event”, said Joel Wit, a former state department official and editor of the institute’s website, 38 North.
It had also apparently completed a moveable structure on rails, several storeys high, that would be used to shift rockets or rocket stages to the launch tower, and a 240-metre long shelter to hide a rail line that would prevent satellite observation while equipment was being transported to the launchpad.
Any rocket launch would nearly certainly be viewed by the global community as a disguised ballistic missile test and result in the imposition of fresh sanctions.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently offered a conciliatory gesture by recognizing the sacrifice of Chinese soldiers who lost their lives fighting on the North’s side during the 1950-53 Korean War.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported last week that the North had built a new rocket launch tower, bigger than the one used to fire a suspected ballistic missile in 2012.
“I’m sure we’ll have a grand celebration”, North Korean’s ambassador to the United Nations, Jang Illinois Hun, told reporters Tuesday in response to a question about a possible missile test for the anniversary.
North Korea is believed to have developed advanced ballistic missile technologies through a series of test launches, including a 2012 launch that succeeded in putting a satellite into orbit.
North Korea has said it will make all the necessary notifications in advance of any satellite launch.
A day earlier in South Korea, Seiler had made an optimistic comparison between the North and Iran, though Ji insisted that his country is already “a nuclear weapons state both in name and in reality”.
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North Korea, which insisted the launch was purely scientific in nature, responded three months later by conducting its third nuclear test – the most powerful to date.
