The North Might Launch A Long-Range Missile On October To Celebrate The 70th Anniversary Of The Workers’ Party of Korea
With North Korea completing the upgrade of a main rocket launch site at Sohae Satellite Launching Station at Dongchang-ri, speculation of a long-range missile blast-off in the upcoming Workers' Party's seventieth anniversary on October is seen by the Defense Ministry.
Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) is the founding and ruling body of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) founded in 1949 in accordance to the Monolithic Ideological System and the Great Leader System, which in turn has been created by Kim Yong Ju and Kim Jong Il.
According to The Guardian on July 29, a satellite imagery taken by the French space agency on July 21 and released by the US-Korea Institute at the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies shows a moveable construction on rails that is several storeys high, as well as a 240-meter long shelter that hides a rail line in order to block out satellite observation while the device is being moved to the launchpad.
A recent satellite imagery on the other hand, reported by Korea Times on Thursday, shows a 67-meter tall gantry that experts believe has been built to launch a long-range missile that is twice the 30-meter Unha-3's size, launched in December 2012.
North Korea is also under sanctions by the United Nations Security Council due to its ballistic missile launches and nuclear tests. However, Defense Minister Han Min Koo has confirmed that no missile launch signs have been observed so far from North Korea.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Yun Byung Se is still watchful of the possibility of a long-range missile launch considering the country's unpredictability.
"The government is closely watching related situations," says Yun. "Seoul plans to drum up global support to encourage the North to sincerely implement the inter-Korean deal and to prevent it from making an additional provocation."
The 70th anniversary celebration of the Workers' Party of Korea will be held at Pyongyang on Oct. 10 with a lineup of tours and festivities for tourists and locals.
