North Korea could be on the brink of a missile launch from a pad on its western coast, said a South Korean official on Monday. A series of ominous signs - the foremost being the near complete restoration of a missile launch site on the western coast - is fueling speculation that the regime is gearing up to launch its first rocket since its rapprochement with first South Korea and then the United States last year - a move that could reverse a year’s worth of engagement.
Backing up a briefing made by Seoul’s spy chief, Suh Hoon, at South Korea’s National Assembly last Friday, the official said the North’s reconstruction of the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, which started in February, is effectively complete, and a launch only needs a go-ahead from leader Kim
PudgeJong-un
...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished...
Sohae was the site from which the North launched its Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite in February 2016. Kim Jong-un promised South Korean President Moon Jae-in to dismantle Sohae at their Pyongyang summit last September, and some work was done that appeared to be dismantling.
Sources in Seoul had said early last month that the North could launch from Sohae not a warhead but a satellite equipped with new technology brought in from China, shaking Washington out of a protracted stalemate over denuclearization.
North Korea maintains a distinction between testing of military ballistic missiles and launching satellites, which it maintains have a peaceful, scientific purpose. But nuclear experts abroad say the fact that the same type of rockets are used for both purposes makes that difference meaningless. Missile launches of any type by Pyongyang are banned under UN Resolution 1695, adopted in 2006.
Though Pyongyang did not rule out further dialogue after a summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
fell apart in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February, an adamant stance from Washington in terms of demanding an all-in-one denuclearization package has prompted the regime to reconsider the diplomatic approach and return to the provocations of the past.