SEOUL, Dec 7: North Korea’s preparations for a planned rocket launch that has triggered international condemnation and sanctions threats may have been delayed by heavy snow, a US think tank said today.
Analysis of fresh satellite imagery suggests preparations at the Sohae satellite launch station are proceeding “more slowly than previously reported,” the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said.
Pyongyang announced last week that it would launch a rocket—ostensibly aimed at placing a satellite in orbit—between December 10 and 22.
“Since this is Pyongyang’s first attempt to launch a long-range rocket in winter, weather may be a new factor,” Nick Hansen, an expert on imagery analysis, wrote on the institute’s website 38 North.
Recent images taken on December 4 showed no tracks in heavy snow that had fallen on the launch site the day before, suggesting at least a temporary halt in operations, Hansen said.
This would raise doubts over South Korean media reports on Wednesday—citing government sources—that the North had completed installing all three stages of the Unha-3 rocket on the launch pad.
Hansen noted that the 12-day launch window announced by Pyongyang was more than twice as long as the five-day window given to its last rocket launch bid in April, which ended in failure.
“This may indicate that the North is well aware of the potential pitfalls caused by bad weather and has built flexibility into the launch schedule,” he said.
The United States and its key Asian military allies, South Korea and Japan, insist the launch is a disguised ballistic missile test that violates UN resolutions triggered by Pyongyang’s two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. (AGENCIES)
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