No sign North Korea preparing for missile launch

SEOUL: It is too soon to tell if recent activity at some of North Korea’s rocket facilities is preparation for a missile launch, South Korea’s defence minister told a parliamentary hearing yesterday.

Early this month, several American think tanks and South Korean officials said satellite imagery showed possible preparations for a launch from the Sohae site at Tongchang-ri, North Korea, which has been used in the past to launch satellites, but not intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

“It’s hasty to call it missile-related activity,” said Defence Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo. “Tongchang-ri is a launch site but we don’t see any activity being carried out for a missile launch.”

When asked if he could confirm whether Sohae was functionally restored, Jeong said it was inappropriate for intelligence authorities to comment on every media report one way or the other.

He also said there were signs of continued nuclear activity in North Korea, without elaborating.

Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon said it was possible that the recent developments at the missile site were to bolster North Korea’s leverage in negotiations.

On Friday, North Korean ViceForeign Minister Choe Son Hui said in Pyongyang that leader Kim Jong Un was considering suspending talks with the United States and might rethink a freeze on missile and nuclear tests unless the US made concessions.

The activity at Sohae appeared to begin shortly before the US President Donald Trump met Kim at a summit in Hanoi late last month.

The summit broke down over differences about US demands for North Korea to denuclearise and its demand for dramatic relief from international sanctions imposed for its nuclear and missile tests, which it pursued for years in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.