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Institute says North Korea has resumed work at missile launch site

: Dec 2, 2013 - : 12:16 pm

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A U.S. research institute said Friday, November 29, it has detected new construction at a North Korean missile launch site which the institute says is being upgraded to handle larger rockets.

Commercial satellite imagery shows work has resumed after a months-long hiatus at Tonghae, on the country’s northeast coast, on what looks like a rocket assembly building and a launch control center.

The findings were provided to AP ahead of publication by 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

It is the latest sign that North Korea is pressing ahead with its nuclear and missile programs despite declaring its willingness to resume aid-for-disarmament negotiations.

Overhead photos have also indicated the North restarted a mothballed plutonium reactor in late August, and is working to upgrade its other main missile launch site at Sohae.

But 38 North says a rocket test does not appear imminent at either launch site.

Assessing the intentions of North Korea’s secretive regime and the nation’s technical capabilities is notoriously difficult. The conclusions are based on analysis of imagery by Nick Hansen, a retired intelligence expert who closely monitors developments in the North’s weapons programs.

Sohae, which lies on North Korea’s west coast, has been used for its recent major launches, including the firing of a three-stage rocket into space last December. That launch was viewed by the U.S. as a worrying marker in the North’s development of ballistic missile technology.

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