North Korea prepares to launch new long-range rocket: Yonhap

  22 July 2015    Read: 687
North Korea prepares to launch new long-range rocket: Yonhap
North Korea is preparing to launch a new, long-range rocket, possibly in October, having completed an upgrade at its main satellite launch base, South Korea`s Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday.
Any such launch would almost certainly be viewed by the international community as a disguised ballistic missile test and result in the imposition of fresh sanctions.

Quoting an unnamed government source, Yonhap cited "credible intelligence" that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un had ordered the launch of a satellite to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the North`s ruling Workers` Party on October 10.

"We think (the North) will carry out a provocation around the 70th anniversary," the source said.

The South Korean Defence Ministry declined to confirm or deny the Yonhap report.

"As to the construction of North Korea`s long-range missile launching facilities, we`ve been watching the North`s moves very closely," a ministry spokesman said.

According to the Yonhap source, North Korea has completed work on an extended 67-metre (220-foot) gantry capable of handling a rocket twice the size of the 30-metre Unha-3 rocket launched in December, 2012.

The Unha-3 launch was widely condemned overseas as a ballistic missile test and triggered additional UN sanctions.

North Korea, which insisted the launch was purely scientific in nature, responded three months later by conducting its a third nuclear test -- the most powerful to date.

North Korea is banned under UN Security Council resolutions from carrying out any launch using ballistic missile technology, although repeated small-range missile tests have gone unpunished.

The upgrading of facilities at the Sohae launch centre have been closely monitored by satellite imagery analysts at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

In a recent report, the institute estimated that an October 10 launch would be "difficult although not impossible".

North Korea, meanwhile, has made its intentions very clear.

Visiting a newly-built satellite command centre in May, Kim Jong-Un had vowed to push ahead with further satellite launches despite the sanctions threat.

"Space development can never be abandoned, no matter who may oppose it," Kim said.

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