Satellite images suggest North Korea is dismantling a key launch site

North Korea appears to be shutting down its primary satellite launch location, the North Korea-focused analysis site 38 North reports, citing satellite imagery taken this month.

Among the facilities being dismantled, 38 North says, are "the rail-mounted processing building — where space launch vehicles are prepared before moving them to the launch pad — and the nearby rocket engine test stand used to develop liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles."

This equipment is thought to have been crucial to the Kim Jong Un regime's development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). However, some analysts caution against overstating the import of this deconstruction: North Korea has not permitted outside experts to verify the shutdown, and this change will have no effect on the regime's current stockpile of long-range missiles.

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