TOKYO — Satellite imagery indicates North Korea has completed construction of a second — and more modern — missile-launch facility, a vital step in its efforts to successfully launch intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The images, first obtained by VOA News, indicate an expansive launch pad positioned next to a launch tower more than 100 feet tall. Though analysts have known about the construction for at least two years, the site’s apparent completion — despite scarce domestic resources and global sanctions — suggests that long-range missile development remains a top priority in Pyongyang.
For previous missile launches, nuclear-armed North Korea used a smaller facility in the northeastern part of the country. The new facility, in the northwest, is close to China’s border and could be less susceptible to a military strike, analysts said.
“This is more like a real facility,” said Dan Pinkston, a Seoul-based security expert who has studied the satellite images. “The other one, it had dirt roads; it was pretty primitive. This one looks to be more of a serious site with support facilities that are needed to sustain a program.”
Last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic-missile program was becoming a “direct threat” to the United States.
News of its completion emerged at the same time that a South Korean newspaper reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il’s youngest son, heir apparent Kim Jong-Un, was named vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, making him the second most-powerful leader in the country. The commission has direct authority over a 1.2-million-member military.
