North Korea may be preparing a long-range ballistic missile launch, Japanese media said yesterday, following a nuclear test this month that raised international alarm and sparked a diplomatic clash between Washington and Beijing.
Imagery collected over the past several days suggested the launch from the western Dongchang-ri site could come in about a week, Kyodo News said, citing a Japanese government source it did not identify.
Increased movements of people and vehicles were seen around the launch site, which has now apparently been covered over, national broadcaster NHK said, citing a source familiar with Japan-South Korea relations.
Photo: Reuters
The US regularly monitors North Korea from space, while Japan began its satellite monitoring of the country in 2003.
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 development parallels events in December 2012, when Pyongyang put a satellite into orbit with its Unha-3 carrier.
Eight days before the 2012 launch, the North also put up a covering over the facility to hide the work from the view of satellites, NHK said.
The international community condemned the 2012 launch as a disguised ballistic missile test, resulting in a tightening of UN sanctions.
South Korean Ministry of National Defense spokesman Kim Min-seok declined to confirm or deny the Japanese reports, saying the ministry did not comment on intelligence matters.
However, he added that South Korea’s military was monitoring for any signs of a long-range missile launch.
“In the past, North Korea always fired a long-range missile ahead of a nuclear test, but since it didn’t this time, we are concerned that it could launch one” afterwards, Kim said.
Kim added that Pyongyang used to notify China and the US before carrying out nuclear tests, though this time did not.
In Tokyo, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda was tightlipped, but said: “We will continue to gather information and carry on surveillance work so that we can deal with any and all situations.”
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