North Korea May Be Ready to Launch a Rocket by Super Bowl Kickoff

Photo Credit: Reuters (Editor’s note: see UPDATE below) By Reuters. Satellite images taken this week of North Korea’s Sohae rocket launch site show apparent fueling activity seen in the past one to two weeks before a rocket launch, a US think tank said on Friday.

North Korea has told UN agencies it will launch a rocket carrying what it called an earth observation satellite some time between 8 and 25 February, triggering international opposition from governments that see it as a long-range missile test.

Commercial satellite images from Wednesday and Thursday show the arrival of tanker trucks at the launch pad, said Washington-based 38 North, a North Korea-monitoring project. It said the presence of the trucks likely indicated the filling of tanks within bunkers at the site rather than a rocket itself.

“In the past, such activity has occurred one to two weeks prior to a launch event and would be consistent with North Korea’s announced launch window,” the report said.

A US defense official said on Thursday activity detected at the site was consistent with a launch in the time frame given by Pyongyang. On Friday, a US government source said US intelligence agencies believed North Korea could be ready by the US Super Bowl kickoff on Sunday, which will be Monday Korea time. (Read more from “North Korea May Be Ready to Launch a Rocket by Super Bowl Kickoff” HERE)

______________________________

North Korea: Long Range Missile Launch Successful

By Ralph Ellis, K.J. Kwon and Tiffany Ap. North Korea has successfully launched a satellite into space, its state-run TV said, an action immediately condemned by the United States as “destabilizing and provocative.”

Carrier rocket Kwangmyongsong blasted off from the Sohae Space Center at 9 a.m Sunday local time, state news agency KCNA said.

The Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite entered orbit nine minutes and 46 seconds after the liftoff, an operation “great leader Kim Jong Un personally ordered and directed,” the TV announcer said.

Though North Korea said the launch was for scientific and “peaceful purposes” — adding it plans to launch more satellites — it was viewed by other nations, such as Japan and South Korea, as a front for a ballistic missile test, especially coming on the heels of North Korea’s purported hydrogen bomb test last month. (Read more from this story HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.