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Rising moves detected in DPRK's missile launch site: S.Korea

Source: Xinhua | October 7, 2016, Friday | Online Edition

RISING moves of personnel and vehicles have been detected in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s main rocket launch site, indicating preparations for a long-range missile launch in the near future, Yonhap news agency reported on Friday.

A senior South Korean government official was quoted as saying the moves in the DPRK's Tongchanr-ri missile base have remarkably increased recently, noting that strategic provocations, including a long-range missile launch, seemed to have been prepared.

South Korea's military has estimated that Pyongyang could conduct another provocation at or around Oct. 10 to mark the 71st anniversary of the foundation day of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).

On Sept. 20, the military said the DPRK conducted a ground test of a new rocket engine that could be used for a long-range missile. It believed that Pyongyang may have enhanced the jet capability of its high-powered rocket engine based on the DPRK's state media report.

The DPRK's official KCNA news agency reported that top DPRK leader Kim Jong Un guided the test of "a new-type high-powered engine of a carrier rocket for geo-stationary satellite" at the Sohae Space Center in the country's west coast. The state media said it was a great success.

The Sohae center is dubbed in South Korea as Tongchanr-ri rocket base, where the DPRK launched a long-range rocket in February and had conducted other rocket tests.

Another South Korean government official was quoted as saying that it remained uncertain whether the DPRK would test-launch a long-range missile boosted by the new rocket engine unveiled on Sept. 20, but he said South Korea is closely watching the launch site's moves with all possibilities being open.

Seoul's military also saw a possibility for Pyongyang's sixth nuclear test as intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States found that the DPRK can conduct another nuclear detonation at any time in its main Punggye-ri nuclear test site.

The DPRK has allegedly covered entrances to two tunnels with large camouflage nets at Punggye-ri, an indication which South Korea sees as preparations for a nuclear test in the near future.

The nets have been put up over the entrance to the No.2 tunnel, where Pyongyang conducted it fifth nuclear test on Sept. 9, as well as over the entrance to the No.3 tunnel in which the DPRK is highly likely to carry out its next test of atomic device.

A South Korean military official was quoted by Yonhap as saying that preparations have been made for a nuclear test in either the No.2 or the No.3 tunnels in Punggye-ri where Pyongyang has conducted all of its nuclear tests.

The DPRK's latest nuclear test was carried out on Sept. 9 when the country said it successfully conducted an explosion test of nuclear warhead to fit on ballistic missiles.

The fifth test was seen as the most powerful nuclear detonation ever by the DPRK as it produced an explosive yield of 10 kilotons, stronger than 6 kilotons recorded in the fourth test in January.

About a month after the fourth nuclear device test, the DPRK put a Kwangmyongsong-4 Earth observation satellite into orbit aboard a Kwangmyonsong rocket on Feb. 7.

The Kwangmyongsong rocket has been seen by Seoul's defense ministry to have extended the DPRK's ballistic missile range to about 12,000 km that may enable Pyongyang to strike the eastern part of the U.S. mainland.

It was longer than an estimated range of 10,000 km held by the three-stage Unha-3 rocket, which Pyongyang blasted off to deliver the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite into space in December 2012. Two months later, the third nuclear test of the DPRK was carried out.

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