US Think-Tank: North Korea Upgrading Main Launch Site

North Korea has undertaken major construction work at its main missile launch site, possibly to cater to larger and more mobile weapons, a US think-tank said Tuesday.

Satellite images taken earlier this month suggest construction of a second flat mobile launch pad at the Sohae missile site, the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University posted on its 38 North website.

This picture taken by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Dec. 12, 2012, shows North Korean rocket Unha-3 lifting off from the launching pad in Cholsan county, North Pyongan province in North Korea.

Work has also been carried out on Sohae’s main launch pad, “possibly to upgrade that facility to handle future larger rockets,” the post said.

The pad was used for the launch in December of the North’s Unha-3 carrier, which successfully placed a satellite in orbit.

The launch was condemned by most in the international community as a disguised ballistic missile test that violated UN sanctions on Pyongyang.

North Korea insisted it was a purely scientific mission and vowed to push ahead with similar launches in the future.

“Activities related to the upgrading of the Unha launch pad may be completed soon, allowing Pyongyang to proceed with another space launch should it decide to do so,” the institute said.

North Korea is currently pushing for a resumption of six-party talks on its nuclear program, but the United States says it must first demonstrate a commitment to denuclearization.

Another long-range rocket launch would be taken as a step in the opposite direction and almost certainly result in fresh sanctions.

Last week, the US-Korea Institute said satellite images showed North Korea had built two tunnel entrances at its nuclear test site in a sign it plans more detonations. 

US think tank disputes North Korea nuclear progress Report

A US think tank Friday disputed a study that North Korea’s nuclear program was developing beyond the world’s ability to control it and, as evidence, pointed to support by China.

At a conference last month in Seoul, two US scholars presented a report saying that North Korea appeared to be capable of producing key components of the gas centrifuges needed to enrich uranium.

Joshua Pollack, who produced the report with Massachusetts Institute of Technology nuclear scientist Scott Kemp, said that the findings showed that the longstanding global response to North Korea of export controls, sanctions and interdiction “has probably reached its limit of effectiveness.”

But the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security said it saw flaws in the analysis and stressed that much remains murky about North Korea.

The institute said it has learned of North Korea’s recent import from China, its main ally, of restricted computer-numerically controlled machine tools, which would indicate it is not able to produce such advanced products itself.

The institute also said that pictures of a key component — a computer-numerically controlled flow forming machine — raised suspicions it was manufactured in Europe.

The institute’s David Albright and Olli Heinonen praised their fellow scholars’ efforts but said that, barring other technical evidence, their conclusions are “likely incorrect, or at least overstated.”

“The possible conclusion of the paper that export controls and sanctions are no longer effective or are unable to ever control the supply of illicit goods to North Korea may undermine, as a matter of policy, the justification for these efforts,” they wrote.

“If anything, the priority is strengthening these measures with China’s cooperation,” they wrote.

N. Korea Accuses US of 'Serious' Provocation Over Naval Drill

SEOUL — North Korea took fresh aim at the United States Wednesday over a three-nation naval drill, accusing it of “serious military provocation” and branding the exercise an “attack on our efforts for peace.”

The planned drill in waters around the Korean Peninsula involves South Korea, Japan and the United States, which has deployed the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington.

The North’s foreign ministry spokesman hit out at the exercise, which comes after Seoul and Washington last week agreed a joint strategy to address what they described as the mounting threat of a North Korean nuclear attack.

The spokesman said the joint strategy signaled an increase in the “threats of nuclear war against us” and the “completion of plans for a pre-emptive nuclear strike.”

“In these circumstances, the dangerous joint naval drill is a serious military provocation and a frontal attack against our efforts for peace,” the spokesman was quoted as saying by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

“We want peace but we don’t beg for it. We are ready not only for dialogue but confrontation as well.”

The annual naval drill had been scheduled to take place earlier this week, but was postponed due to an approaching typhoon.

It remains unclear when the drill, which the US and South Korea describe as a search and rescue exercise and humanitarian in nature, will be carried out.

North Korea on Tuesday warned the United States of a “horrible disaster” and put its troops on alert over the drill.

The United States and South Korea have long demanded that Pyongyang show commitment to ending its nuclear weapons program before six-nation talks on disarmament, which have been stalled since December 2008, can resume.

North Korea has habitually condemned joint military drills south of the border and threatened counter-attacks that have not materialized.

The North held its most powerful atomic test to date in February, sending tensions soaring in the region.

The temperature has been lowered in recent months after a series of conciliatory gestures by Pyongyang towards Seoul.

But acute concerns remain over the North’s nuclear program, with South Korea’s spy agency telling lawmakers on Tuesday that Pyongyang has restarted its aging Yongbyon plutonium reactor.