North Korea is just continuing to up the pressure campaign against the Trump administration through the media with these tests. North Korea did not even say what this test was, but I assume it was probably an engine test of whatever rocket they plan to fire:
North Korea said Saturday that it will use its new technologies to develop a strategic weapon to counter the U.S. nuclear threat.
Pak Jong-chon, chief of the North Korean military’s General Staff, also said North Korea has “stored up a tremendous power” and the military is fully ready to put into action any decision of leader Kim Jong-un.
“In the situation of the acute confrontation, the U.S. and other hostile forces will spend the year-end in peace only when they hold off any words and deeds rattling us,” Pak said in a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
The comments came hours after North Korea said it successfully carried out “another crucial test” at its satellite launch site in a possible sign of further provocations unless its year-end deadline is met.
Remember when people were making a big deal about the concession from North Korea of disassembling a rocket test stand? At the time I said this was largely meaningless because they did not need the test stand and was something that could be easily reconstructed when needed again. Sure enough he we go again:
North Korea’s Unha-3 rocket lifts off from the Sohae launchpad in Dongchang-ri, North Korea, in this Dec. 12, 2012, photo released by the Korean Central News Agency.
Satellite imagery suggests that North Korea may be taking steps to reactivate a partially decommissioned long-range rocket test site on the country’s west coast. Experts say they see evidence that workers are rebuilding at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station. In a matter of days, a rocket-engine test stand and a large transfer structure have been reassembled, according to Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., a senior fellow for imagery analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The structures were taken down over the course of last summer, Bermudez says, and reassembled in a matter of days.
You can read more at the link, but the rebuilding of the test stand is the least provocative response that Kim Jong-un can take after President Trump walked away from the Hanoi Summit because Kim would not denuclearize.
I expect that in the future if the Kim regime feels they are not getting any progress on lifting sanctions that they will begin a launch cycle at Sohae and claim it is for a friendly space launch. This will increase tensions while give them plausible deniability of continuing ICBM development.
Here is the latest so called progress on the North Korea denuclearization issue:
Shown is a file photo of North Korea test firing a rocket at its Sohae Satellite Launching Station, the country’s main such location since 2012, on Feb. 7, 2016. U.S. website 38 North said on July 24, 2018, that new satellite imagery from July 20 shows key facilities are being dismantled at the station in line with a promise made by the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, at his historic summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. (Yonhap) (END)
North Korea has started dismantling some facilities at its main satellite launch station, seen as the testing ground for its intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to expert analysis of recent satellite images.
If confirmed, the analysis by respected US-based website 38 North could signal a step forward after last month’s landmark summit between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump, although some experts questioned the significance of the gesture.
After the summit, Trump had declared the North Korean nuclear threat was effectively over, and US media reports suggest he is privately furious at the lack of any subsequent progress on the denuclearisation issue. [AFP]
Before anyone gets excited by this news, it is important to note that the satellite launch site has nothing do with North Korea’s nuclear program. I have always believed that the Kim regime would be more willing to make concessions over their ICBM program and market it as being a step towards denuclearization in return for US concessions. That appears to be what they are doing.
Additionally this concession at their satellite launch site does not really effect their ICBM program anyway:
Melissa Hanham, senior research associate with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, said that while dismantling the engine test site was a “good move”, it amounted to “the bare minimum” that could be done at Sohae.
“Unless they dismantle the whole site, it will remain North Korea’s premier location for space launches,” Hanham said on Twitter.
“North Korea does not need the Sohae engine test stand anymore if it is confident in the engine design. As (Kim Jong Un) said himself, North Korea is moving from testing to mass production,” she said, adding that observers should look for signs of new sites where more missiles could be built.
So basically North Korea is dismantling something it doesn’t really need right now that they can then reconstruct when needed in a matter of days. Is this something I am supposed to be excited about?
Recent commercial satellite imagery indicates notable progress has been made on a new structure near the launch pad at North Korea’s Sohae Satellite Launching Station.https://t.co/gD7m0yIImh
