[Science] North Korea makes progress at rocket sites 38 North, a blog, said that North Korea likely was preparing to test much larger rockets by the time the site is completed in 2016

Washington: Already under fire for its latest

nuclear test, North Korea has been making preparations at a launchpad

that could pave the way for firing a long-range missile, a US think tank

has said.

38 North, a blog of the US-Korea Institute at

Johns Hopkins University, analysed satellite photos that it said showed

possible assistance from Iran at the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground

in northeastern North Korea.

38 North said on Thursday that a commercial

satellite photograph taken on 5 January showed “important progress”

since the area was hit with typhoons last year and indicated activity

that was consistent with preparations for a launch.

But the website said there was not enough evidence to

support speculation that North Korea could raise the stakes by testing

its KN-08, a new missile with potential intercontinental range first

displayed in a parade in April.

The website said that North Korea likely was preparing to test much larger rockets by the time the site is completed in 2016.

The launchpad was last used in April 2009 for a

long-range test widely seen as a failure. The area has a new flame

trench covering, which would protect large rockets from exhaust gases,

that has a design similar to one used at the Semnan launchpad in central

Iran, the website said.

It said that the satellite photos showed that three

storage tanks were built last year that can hold 439,100 litres (116,000

gallons) of fuel, a level far above North Korea’s capacity during its

most recent launch.

38 North said that it also observed a conduit

through which technicians and electrical and communications lines can

pass, even though Tonghae is accessible only by a dirt road.

North Korea defiantly carried out its third nuclear test

on Tuesday, saying it was responding to US “hostility” after the UN

Security Council condemned its last launch two months earlier.

On 12 December North Korea launched a rocket from its

separate Sohae site that, according to experts, managed to reach near

the Philippines and to put a small satellite into orbit.

The United States and its allies condemned the launch, fearing it was part of efforts to refine a longer-range missile.