| Submit your comments on this article | |
| China-Japan-Koreas | |
| N. Korea steps up efforts to expand rocket launch site | |
| 2014-07-30 | |
| WASHINGTON -- North Korea is stepping up efforts to expand a long-range rocket launch site on the country's west coast to enable it to handle bigger rockets with heavier payloads, and the project could be complete by next year, a U.S. think tank said Tuesday. The website 38 North, run by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, made the analysis in a report, based on satellite imagery of the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, where the North successfully launched a long-range rocket in December 2012. "As of July 2014, North Korea had increased the gantry height to over 50 meters, completed construction of a new wider road onto the pad to carry larger rockets, and was building a rail spur from the existing siding that would also carry larger rockets directly to the launch pad," the report said. "These modifications could be completed by 2015," it added. The report also said that the North carried out a series of tests this year on the first stage rocket motor of the KN-08 road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Satellite imagery shows the presence of first stage rocket motors and distressed vegetation along the edges of the flame path, it said.
Satellite images also show "building activity in the hills in the northwest area of the test center," it said, adding that two domed structures were seen in the photos, though their purpose remains unclear. The internal layout of the larger structure indicates that it may be an auditorium intended for use as a training center, an area for displaying satellite launch vehicle or missile hardware or a launch control center that might accommodate VIPs, clients or the media, it said. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 The vegetation was just so upset... Vegans everywhere are wailing. |
| Posted by: gorb 2014-07-30 10:42 |