North Korea rebuilding long
The Sohae Satellite Launching Station features what researchers of Beyond Parallel, a CSIS project, describe as the vertical engine stand partially rebuilt with two construction cranes, several vehicles and supplies laying on the ground in a commercial satellite image taken over Tongchang-ri, North Korea on March 2, 2019 and released March 5, 2019. Reuters |
There are signs that North Korea is making efforts to rebuild part of a recently dismantled missile launch site, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday, citing intelligence officials in Seoul.
According to the report, which cited a briefing by South Korea's National Intelligence Service, Pyongyang seems to have put a roof and door back on the Sohae launch facility, which was taken down in 2018.
The South Korean intelligence service was quoted as saying that "the US information is the same as ours," according to Yonhap.
The briefing also shared that a 5-megawatt reactor in the Yongbyon nuclear complex had not been operated since late last year, and that underground tunnels at the Punggye Ri nuclear test site remain shut.
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The Sohae Satellite Launching Station launch pad features what researchers of Beyond Parallel, a CSIS project, describe as showing the partially rebuilt rail-mounted rocket transfer structure in a commercial satellite image taken over Tongchang-ri, North Korea on March 2, 2019 and released March 5, 2019. Reuters |
The report adds to recent alarms raised just days after U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un left their second summit in Hanoi without signing an agreement on denuclearization.
On Monday, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned that North Korea is continuing to use its uranium enrichment plant and has pushed ahead with the construction of a reactor.
Although IAEA inspectors are not allowed into North Korea, they have been using satellite images and available documents to monitor the Yongbyon nuclear complex, which is suspected of producing fissile material for North Korea's nuclear weapons program. (dpa)