less than a month after its purported H-bomb test, attention is now focused on whether North Korea is readying a rocket launch. With underground railways, giant tarps and a movable launch pad structure in place, experts say, the North is getting a lot better at concealing its preparations.
American and Japanese officials say they are seeing heightened activity at North Korea’s main rocket facility, though they stress it’s still unclear if a launch really is in the works or how soon it might come. Intelligence officials in Seoul, stung by their failure to predict the North’s January 6 nuclear test, are also warning another provocation could happen abruptly. What North Korea might launch is a big question mark.
There are indications —including the construction of a taller gantry, visible in commercial satellite imagery — that it could be a bigger and better version of the Unha 3 space launch vehicle that lifted off from the Sohae facility in 2012, on the west coast of North Korea.