North Korea has built a new, taller missile launch tower at its missile base, a South Korean news agency reports.
The construction of the 67-meter (220-ft) tower is apparently intended to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s ruling Worker’s Party on October 10.
“Our assessment is that the North will use the newly upgraded Tongchang-ri (missile) launch pad to launch a long-range missile larger than Unha-3,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted a government source as saying today (Wednesday, July 22).
North Korea fired the Unha-3 long-range rocket in a 2012 launch from a base near its west coast. That launch that was considered successful in putting an object into space, according to Yonhap.
The United Nations Security Council, however, has banned North Korea from conducting tests using ballistic missile technology.
North Korea has repeatedly ignored those resolutions, defying international warnings and sanctions to pursue missile and nuclear programs in much the same manner as the Islamic Republic of Iran. The two countries have strong ties and share nuclear technology.
At present, North Korea is believed to be is working to miniaturize a nuclear warhead, and also to be developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). However, it is believed the latter effort is still years away from deployment, Reuters reports.