Images show N Korea rebuilding main satellite launch site

The pictures show a moving structure that had been used to carry launch vehicles to a launch pad on rails has been restored

SEOUL: Activity has been detected at a North Korean long-range rocket site, suggesting Pyongyang may be pursuing the “rapid rebuilding” of the facility after the collapse of the Hanoi summit, according to analysis of satellite imagery.

Another research website suggested the rebuilding of the site may have started even before last week’s meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump.

The summit ended abruptly after the pair failed to reach an agreement on walking back Pyongyang’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

The renewed activity was recorded two days after the talks and may “demonstrate resolve in the face of US rejection” of the North’s request for an easing of sanctions, said researchers at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

“This facility had been dormant since August 2018, indicating the current activity is deliberate and purposeful,” it said.

Kim had agreed to shutter the Sohae missile-testing site at a summit with the South’s President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang, as part of confidence-building measures, and satellite pictures in August suggested workers were already dismantling an engine test stand at the facility.

But CSIS said building activity is now “evident” at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, from where Pyongyang launched satellites in 2012 and 2016.

North Korea was later banned by the UN security council from carrying out the space launches, as some of its technology was similar to that used for intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The respected Washington-based 38 North project, another independent research website specialising in North Korea, also reported building work at the Sohae facility, based on commercial satellite imagery.

The pictures show a moving structure that had been used to carry launch vehicles to a launch pad on rails has been restored, it said.

“Two support cranes are observed at the building, the walls have been erected and a new roof added. At the engine test stand, it appears that the engine support structure is being reassembled,” the 38 North reported.

In a briefing to parliamentarians this week, Seoul’s spy agency said it had detected signs of work at the site.