SEOUL: North Korea may be preparing for a missile or space launch, the US news outlet NPR has reported, based on satellite image analysis of a key facility near Pyongyang.
NPR said the images of Sanumdong, one of the facilities Pyongyang has used to produce inter-continental ballistic missiles and space rockets, were taken days before US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met in Hanoi for their summit, which ended in failure.
The photos by the firm DigitalGlobe show the presence of cars and trucks at the site on Feb 22, said NPR, which has exclusive access to the imagery. Rail cars and cranes can also be seen at a yard.
“When you put all that together, that’s really what it looks like when the North Koreans are in the process of building a rocket,” Jeffrey Lewis, a researcher at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, was quoted as saying by NPR on Friday.
The Sanumdong analysis comes days after the specialised website 38 North and the Center for Strategic and International Studies said Pyongyang may have resumed operations at its long-range rocket launch site at Sohae, based on their study of satellite imagery from March 6.
The development is likely to further compound Washington’s frustration over the lack of progress in its bid to get the North to give up its atomic arsenal, especially after the Feb 27-28 summit between Trump and Kim collapsed without so much as a joint statement — let alone an agreement on nuclear disarmament.
According to senior US officials, in the week leading up to the Hanoi summit, the North Koreans had demanded the lifting of effectively all UN Security Council economic sanctions imposed since March 2016.
In return, Pyongyang offered only to close part of the Yongbyon complex, a sprawling site covering multiple facilities. The North is also believed to have other uranium enrichment plants.
But North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong-ho disputed the US account, saying Pyongyang offered to dismantle all “nuclear production facilities in the Yongbyon area” in exchange for partial sanctions relief.
Trump said on Friday that his relationship with Kim “remains good”, despite the setback in Hanoi.
US officials have said Washington believes the “final, fully verified denuclearisation” of North Korea is still possible by the end of Trump’s first term.
Kim released his first public message since the Hanoi summit earlier this week, instructing propaganda officials to conduct “positive information” activities to spur scientific and technological development, according to the state media outlet KCNA.
The North Korean leader said his party’s top priority is to improve the economy and livelihood of the people, KCNA reported, citing his message to a party workers’ convention held on Wednesday.
“The public at home and abroad that had hoped for success and good results from the second DPRK-US summit in Hanoi are feeling regretful, blaming the US for the summit that ended without an agreement,” KCNA reported, citing a commentary in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper.
The US is aware of the new satellite images but hasn’t drawn the same conclusions as other experts, a senior official at the State Department said on Friday.
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper in Seoul has also reported that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers that it detected signs of North Korea restoring part of the Tongchang-ri missile launch site that it tore down in July.
The comments, made during a briefing at a parliamentary session, also noted that North Korea stopped the operations of a five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex late last year with no signs of reprocessing activities there.
