Free Republic

Iran is building a new rocket launch site a short distance from an existing complex in the north of the country, and seems to be working with North Korea, information group IHS Jane's has said. Construction visible from satellite imagery of the new site, near the city of Semnan east of Tehran, seems to suggest that Tehran has been collaborating with Pyongyang, said the London-based defence intelligence group. Iran unveiled the Simorgh space-launch vehicle (SLV) on February 3, but had not yet publicly revealed the location of the rocket's launch complex, it reported on Friday. But Jane's said it had...

Extensive infrastructure developments are evident in the following satellite imagery, obtained by the Israeli Eros-B satellite. The images are superimposed on an earlier image, available through Google Earth, taken around 2007. Images: Background image, GoogleEarth. Inserts: Imagesat International. Below: The latest image, taken 27 November, 2009 showing the construction progress at the site, with a siezable gantry tower constructed at the launch site, with an associated launch pad, and fully constructed flame bucket diverting the missile's exhaust gases from the hillside. The launch site is linked through separate tubing, to a nearby, sheltered underground facility located at the upper left...

North Korea has completed work on a new west coast site capable of launching improved intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to senior South Korean officials quoted by Yonhap news agency. The Dongchang-ri base has been under construction for several years despite long-running international efforts to shut down the communist state's missile and nuclear programmes. "The construction is as good as finished," one South Korean official told Yonhap on condition of anonymity. "The necessary facilities are all there." Another official said the North has been testing missile parts such as boosters at the site about 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Pyongyang....

North Korea building base for bigger missiles: South Tue Nov 4, 1:44 am ET SEOUL (Reuters) – A new North Korean missile base being built near its border with China is larger in scale than existing bases and can eventually launch intercontinental missiles, South Korea's defense minister said on Tuesday. North Korea's missile program is a pressing security concern because the secretive state has an arsenal of 800 ballistic missiles that can strike South Korea and Japan and is working to build a functional missile that can hit U.S. territory. The new base is 80 percent finished, Minister Lee Sang-hee...

N. Korea removes second Taepodong-2 missile from launch site:officials SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Yonhap) -- North Korea may have relocated a long-range missile from a launch site from which it test-fired missiles last month, but the reason for its removal and its new location were not immediately known, a government official said Friday. The purported missile was one of two Taepodong-2 missiles assembled at the launch site in the eastern district of Musudan-ri, North Hamkyong Province, where the first missile was launched on July 5 along with six other short- and mid-range missiles from other launch sites.