Report - North Korea tested 'rocket booster' in January

Yomiuri Shimbun ^ | February 28, 2003

[HAL9000]

Pyongyang 'tested rocket booster in Jan.'

In yet another move that could increase tensions, North Korea is believed to have tested a rocket booster in January at a Taepodong ballistic missile launch site in Musudanri, Hamgyong-bukto province, Japanese and U.S. government sources said Thursday.

According to the sources, U.S. spy satellite photos and other intelligence reports indicate that the launch facility is equipped with a fiber-optic network, while areas around the launchpad have been roofed in an apparent attempt to deter surveillance. The sources said the two governments, on special alert following the reactivation of the Yongbong experimental nuclear reactor, consider the latest findings prove that Pyongyang is pursuing ballistic missile development.

The two governments plan to improve their monitoring of the facility by deploying electronic surveillance aircraft and other surveillance devices, especially as the renovations made to the launch facility make it difficult for U.S. spy satellites and other conventional information-gathering methods, such as intercepts of North Korea's radio transmissions, to detect signs of a missile launch.

The booster rocket test was confirmed through such evidence as a change in the color of the ground near the launch site, the sources said. The day and time of the test were not disclosed. The sources added that there was no sign that a launch of the Taepodong missile is imminent as it has not been confirmed that North Korea has begun to assemble the missile's engine and main body.

Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in January and recently hinted at resuming ballistic missile tests. The fiber-optic network built at the facility reportedly is aimed at preventing surveillance by Self-Defense Forces facilities stationed along the coast of the Sea of Japan that intercept North Korean military radio transmissions.

Previously, the Japanese and U.S. governments had considered it possible to detect signs of potential Taepodong launches by using spy satellites to closely monitor tanker trucks and other vehicles that carry liquid fuel and other equipment brought to the launchpad before the actual firing.

However, the confirmed construction of a roof around the launchpad now makes it difficult for Japanese and U.S. intelligence to observe such missile launch preparations, the sources said.

North Korea announced it would freeze missile launches following U.S.-North Korea talks held in September 1999. Pyongyang agreed to freeze missile tests beyond 2003 under the Japan-North Korea Pyongyang Declaration, which was signed during Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Pyongyang in September.

On Aug. 31, 1998, North Korea test-fired the intermediate-range Taepodong I, which flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean.

Japanese government sources said that North Korea had been continuing its missile development program by conducting missile engine tests once or twice a year since autumn 1999, although it has not launched any missiles.

The Taepodong I missile has a range of about 1,500 kilometers. North Korea also has a longer-range version of the missile, the Taepodong II, which is believed to combine a new rocket engine as the first stage and a short-range Rodong missile as the second-stage booster.

[griffin]

"However, the confirmed construction of a roof around the launchpad now makes it difficult for Japanese and U.S. intelligence to observe such missile launch preparations"

Aww....way to go Jeff.....giving the N. Korean's ideas with your books on how to hide weapon system development and readiness activites from arial and satellite observation.

I do find it funny that with all their development, they didn't build the roof large enough to hide the ground effects! :)

Wonder if the Nimitz Battle group is reall going to the gulf? Seems like time is of the essence for these North Korean turkeys. Stack 'em up like dominos I guess.

[tallhappy]

U.S. spy satellite photos and other intelligence reports indicate that the launch facility is equipped with a fiber-optic network

Chinese communists work. They put in fiber optic networks for Iraq an Taliban as well.