Recent commercial satellite imagery of North Korea’s Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province, shows that activity at the launch pad has resumed after a nearly six-month hiatus and is progressing rapidly. The launch site has been used for the launch of the intelligence satellite Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite, long-range missiles, as well as for important tests for the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
38 North noticed significant changes at the ramp over the past two weeks. Many materials that had been stored away on the apron since last fall – notably fuel and oxidizer tanks from demolished bunkers, panels from the rail mounted transfer structure, a new launch stand ring and parts of a new tower crane – have recently been used or removed.
Pictures taken on May 12 reportedly show that a new tower crane about 90 meters tall has been erected next to the smaller, existing gantry tower, possibly to provide working access to rockets standing on the launch pad. The height difference between the two towers indicates that the latter, 65-meter-high tower may be raised another 20 meters to accommodate larger rockets in the future, as 38 North suggested.
Additional assembly work took place on the rail-mounted transfer structure, whose current height allows it to carry a vertically stacked Unha-3, a North Korean three-stage liquid-fueled carrier rocket with an overall length of about 30 meters and a diameter of 2.4 meters, or a comparable satellite launch vehicle (SLV). One possible explanation for the construction could be to strengthen the structure and equipment so it can accommodate “heavier and bulkier launch vehicle stages,” according to 38 North.
Only recently, 38 North reported a newly discovered building site one kilometer north-northwest of ongoing construction on a new seaport and said it found what appeared to be temporary worker shacks and several truck deliveries in satellite photos from Apr. 30.
The DPRK did not react with missile tests to the South’s recent defense summits
The construction work is attributed to specific orders issued by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un during his last visit to Sohae a year ago. Kim called for enhancements to the facility to improve its capabilities to accommodate different types of SLVs, including a military reconnaissance satellite that Kim said had been “completed as of April” and would only be the first of “several reconnaissance satellites on different orbits” in the future.
However, North Korea has not conducted any missile or weapons tests from Sohae Station in over a month, since a test launch of a new solid propellant intercontinental ballistic missile on Apr. 13, likely due to the recent activities at key parts of the station.
The ongoing construction work may also be the reason why the regime did not respond with military action to the recent US-South Korean summit that culminated in the “Washington Declaration,” a bilateral defense agreement, or to last week’s meeting between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
According to 38 North, the DPRK still has work to do before it can launch its new satellite from Sohae, as both the launch pad as well as the fuel and oxidizer bunkers appear to be far from operational.
Edited by Robert Lauler.
