Images show missile activity before summit
North Korea made move on space launch before U.S. meeting, experts say
TOKYO— Satellite images suggest North Korea was preparing to launch a space rocket even before the breakdown of the Hanoi summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, experts say.
There is no way of knowing if Pyongyang will follow through with the plans, which would undoubtedly be seen very negatively in Washington and could derail an already shaky negotiation process.
Meanwhile, signs of a hardening of attitudes within the Trump administration have left several experts increasingly pessimistic. There’s a feeling that talks had already hit an impasse even before the summit. And experts say North Korea was frustrated over the lack of sanctions relief.
North Korean leader Kim had already warned in a New Year’s Day speech that he might be forced to follow a “new path” if the United States demanded unilateral concessions and failed to lift sanctions.
Images showed signs of activity on Feb. 22 at Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS) at Sanumdong, just outside Pyongyang, which is North Korea’s primary developer of ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles.
Other images made available last week show North Korea has also rebuilt a launchpad and rocket engine test site at the Sohae satellite launching station, reinforcing suspicions that a rocket launch could be imminent.
In 2012, an agreement between North Korea and the Obama administration to cease nuclear and missile tests in return for food aid broke down after Pyongyang launched a satellite rocket.
Trump has set considerable store in a promise by Kim Jong Un to suspend testing, and said on Friday he said he would be “very disappointed” if testing resumed. “With the inconclu- sive result in Hanoi, North Korea now appears to be moving again toward a space launch,” wrote Jeffrey Lewis, a scholar at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, in California, on a blog post.
Lewis said he expected North Korea would use older, and already tried and tested technology for a space launch.
On Thursday, a senior State Department official said launch of a space launch vehicle from Sohae “would be inconsistent with the commitments that the North Koreans have made.”