N. KOREA ‘TEST’ AT DISMANTLED LAUNCH SITE

Seoul, Dec. 8: North Korea said on Sunday that it carried out a ‘very important test’ at its long-range rocket launch site that it reportedly rebuilt after having partially dismantled it at the start of denuclearisation talks with the US last year.

The announcement comes amid dimming prospects for a resumption of negotiations, with the North threatening to seek a new way if it fails to get major US concessions by year’s end. North Korea has said its resumption of nuclear and long-range missile tests depends on the United States.

The latest test at the Sohae satellite launching ground will have “an important effect on changing the strategic position of North Korea once again in the near future,” an unidentified spokesman from the North’s Academy of National Defense Science said. North Korea didn’t say what the test included. Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said that North Korea likely tested for the first time a solid-fuel engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The use of solid fuel increases a weapon’s mobility and reduces the amount of launch preparation time. The longrange rockets that North Korea used in either ICBM launches or satellite liftoffs in recent years all used liquid propellants. A new satellite image indicated North Korea may be preparing to resume testing engines used to power satellite launchers and intercontinental ballistic missiles at the site.