North Korea upgrades rocket launch site so it can fire bigger ones

North Korea, already heavily sanctioned by the United Nations for its missile and nuclear tests, has completed a major overhaul of its rocket launch site, a US think tank said yesterday, enabling it to fire larger, longer-range rockets.

Reclusive North Korea, which is technically still at war with the South after the 1950-53 Korean war ended in a truce not a peace treaty, routinely fires short-range missiles or rockets into waters off its east and west coasts.

A longer-range capability would be bound to concern its sworn enemies, Japan and the United States whom it regularly threatens with nuclear strikes.

Commercial satellite pictures showed North Korea had finished work under a major programme to upgrade the Sohae Satellite Launch Station, in the North's western region near the border with China, said the 38 North Website, operated by Johns Hopkins University's US-Korea Institute.

"A key component of that programme has been to upgrade an existing launch pad, enabling it to launch rockets larger than the existing Unha-3 space launch vehicle in the future," it said.

Unha-3 is the North's long-range rocket launched in December 2012 following a failed test in April, triggering a sharp rebuke by the UN Security Council, which already has a series of sanctions in force for its missile and nuclear tests.