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North Korea satellite pictures show rocket launch preparations | North Korea satellite pictures show rocket launch preparations |
(about 7 hours later) | |
Satellite imagery appears to show preparations beginning for a long-range rocket launch in North Korea despite international objections. | |
The image from a privately operated satellite was taken on Wednesday at the Tongchang-ri site, where North Korea says it plans to launch the rocket between 12 and 16 April. | |
An analysis conducted for the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies says the image shows trucks and fuel tanks outside two large buildings that would be used to store propellant for the rocket. It also shows work under way at a gantry tower next to a mobile launch pad, with a crane being used to load equipment. The rocket itself is not visible. | |
"The image shows not only that the launch is going ahead but the preparations seem to be on schedule for the planned launch dates," said Joel Wit, a visiting fellow at the institute and editor of 38 North, its website on North Korea. | |
North Korea says the launch is to fire an observation satellite into orbit and mark the centennial of the birth of the country's founder, Kim Il-sung. The US says it is a cover to test long-range missile technology and violates UN security council resolutions. | |
Barack Obama appealed to North Korean leaders to abandon the rocket plan but was rebuffed by the North. | Barack Obama appealed to North Korean leaders to abandon the rocket plan but was rebuffed by the North. |
If the launch does go ahead it will terminate a 29 February accord under which the North agreed to nuclear concessions and a moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests in exchange for food aid. The US says plans to provide food to the impoverished communist country are already on hold. | |
On Sunday South Korean defence officials said the main body of the three-stage rocket had been transported to a building in Tongchang-ri, which lies on North Korea's north-western coast about 35 miles (56km) from the northern border with China. The institute's analysis suggests the separate stages of the rocket will be assembled at the launch site, about 1,000 metres away. It predicted that the first stage of the rocket would probably be moved to the launchpad in the next couple of days. | |
The image appears to show various other activities at the site, including a crew cutting brush away from the launchpad to prevent it catching fire when the Unha-3 rocket takes off, which could endanger buildings used to store the propellant. Analysts describe Tongchang-ri as a more sophisticated launch site than those previously used, allowing a southward flight path that would avoid sending it over other countries. | |
However, the US assistant defence and security secretary for the Asia-Pacific, Peter Lavoy, has said the US lacks confidence about the rocket's stability and that debris could cause casualties. He said the rocket was probably intended to land somewhere close to the Philippines, or perhaps Indonesia, but South Korea and the Japanese island of Okinawa could be affected. | |
The Philippines' president, Benigno Aquino, who is a close US ally, has said he is gravely concerned about debris and urged North Korea to abandon the launch, calling it a "needless provocation". | |
Crucially, for Washington, the latest test could demonstrate whether North Korea is closer to perfecting a multistage rocket that could hit the US. | |
North Korea conducted long-range rocket tests in 1998, 2006 and 2009 but with limited success. It has conducted two nuclear tests but is not believed to have mastered fitting a nuclear weapon on to a missile. | |
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