29 January 2016

Editorial: Is North Korea Preparing to Launch A Long-Range Ballistic Missile?

By Franz-Stefan Gady

The North could launch a long-range missile within a couple of days, according to media reports.

North Korea could fire a ballistic missile from its Sohae satellite launching station in North Pyongan Province in northwestern North Korea, The Yomiuri Shimbun reports based on information provided by a South Korean government source.

Similar to past North Korean practices prior to a missile launch, the area around the launching station has been screened off and an increase in traffic of both humans and vehicles observed, according to the source. Freight trains were also seen to be moving back and forth between missile factories and the rocket launching site.

Earlier, Japan’s Kyodo News agency had announced that North Korea could test-fire a long-range missile within a week, based on satellite imagery analyses. However, it is “unlikely that North Korea will launch a missile out of the blue within a week,” the source said.

“North Korea is likely to do it abruptly when they launch important provocative acts in the future,” South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a regular briefing, according to Yonhap News.

Read the full story at The Diplomat