Work moving quickly on Pyongyang's new launch facility

North Korea

Published: 23 May. 2023, 17:06 Updated: 23 May. 2023, 17:21

Work moving quickly on Pyongyang's new launch facility

North Korea tests a ″high-thrust solid-fuel″ rocket at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, on Dec. 15, 2022, in a photo released by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency. [YONHAP]

Satellite images of a North Korean rocket testing site show construction work on a new launch facility is proceeding quickly, according to a new report.

Photographs of the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground taken on Monday by private earth observation company Planet Labs show new structures of a presumed launch platform under construction that is approximately 140 meters (450 feet) long and 40 meters wide, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on Tuesday.

RFA’s report noted that the structures appeared only six days after the last Planet Labs photo of the site, which captured a bare field topped with what appeared to be concrete.

Sohae Satellite Launching Ground is a rocket testing site located on the country’s western coast in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, near the border with China.

The site is North Korea’s only known permanent operational test ground for major weapons systems such as satellite launch vehicles and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

In March 2017, North Korea said it tested a new high-thrust missile engine at Sohae that can be used for Hwasong-15 and Hwasong-17 ICBMs.

North Korea also claimed it tested a new “high-thrust solid-fuel” missile engine on Dec. 15 last year from the Sohae site.

North Korean state media also claimed in December that the regime’s National Aerospace Development Administration had successfully launched a test satellite and that it would launch its first military reconnaissance satellite by April this year.

But the blurry, black-and-white photographs of Seoul and Incheon purportedly taken from the test satellite released by state media raised questions as to whether a North Korean spy camera mounted on a satellite in orbit would be sufficiently powerful and sophisticated for military reconnaissance.

The apparent ongoing construction work at the North Korean satellite launch site comes amid warnings from South Korea and the United States that the allies will continue bolstering their joint deterrence capabilities and planning in the face of the North’s escalating military threats.

In a post uploaded to his official Twitter account on Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden said, “Alongside Japan and [South Korea], we’re taking our trilateral cooperation to new heights — from coordination in the face of the DPRK’s illicit nuclear and missile threats to economic security for all our people,” referring to the North by the acronym for its official name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The U.S. president, who met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the Group of 7 summit in Hiroshima on Sunday, proposed that the trio meet again in Washington in the coming months, with the exact date yet to be determined, according to an unnamed White House official cited by Reuters and Agence France-Presse.

During their brief meeting in Hiroshima, the leaders “decided to further strengthen strategic cooperation between the three countries to strengthen deterrence against North Korea as well as to solidify a free and open international order based on the rule of law,” said presidential spokesman Lee Do-woon.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]