Activity has been detected at a North Korean long-range rocket site, suggesting Pyongyang might be pursuing the “rapid rebuilding” of the facility after the collapse of the Hanoi summit, according to analysis of satellite imagery.
Another research Web site suggested the rebuilding of the site might have started even before last week’s meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump.
The summit ended abruptly after the pair failed to reach an agreement on walking back Pyongyang’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Photo: Reuters / CSIS / Beyond Parallel / DigitalGlobe 2019
The renewed activity was recorded two days after the talks and might “demonstrate resolve in the face of US rejection” of North Korea’s request for an easing of sanctions, researchers at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said.
“This facility had been dormant since August 2018, indicating the current activity is deliberate and purposeful,” CSIS said.
Kim had agreed to shutter the Sohae missile-testing site at a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang as part of confidence-building measures, and satellite pictures in August last year suggested that workers were already dismantling an engine test stand at the facility, but CSIS said building activity is now “evident” at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, from where Pyongyang launched satellites in 2012 and 2016.
North Korea was later banned by the UN Security Council from carrying out the space launches, as some of its technology was similar to that used for intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The Washington-based 38 North project, another independent research Web site specializing in North Korea, also reported building work at the Sohae facility, based on commercial satellite imagery.
The pictures show a moving structure that had been used to carry launch vehicles to a launch pad on rails has been restored, it said.
“Two support cranes are observed at the building, the walls have been erected and a new roof added. At the engine test stand, it appears that the engine support structure is being reassembled,” 38 North reported.
In a briefing to lawmakers this week, the South Korean spy agency said it had detected signs of work at the site, but 38 North director Joel Wit cautioned that the evidence was not necessarily “consistent with preparations for an ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile] test.”
“Aside from the fact that [North Korea] has never tested an ICBM from Sohae — it’s a space vehicle launch site — preparation for any launch would require a wide range of activities not observed in the imagery,” he said.
Ankit Panda of the Federation of American Scientists agreed that the imagery does not suggest an imminent sign of an ICBM launch, but it could be a “reminder of when times were worse and what stands to be lost if the [peace] process collapses.”
The efforts to rebuild structures at the Sohae facility started some time between Feb. 16 and Saturday, based on what commercial satellite imagery shows, 38 North said.
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