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North Korea Announces Completion of ‘Very Important’ Test at Satellite Launching Ground

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Flashpoints | Security | East Asia

North Korea Announces Completion of ‘Very Important’ Test at Satellite Launching Ground

Saturday‘s test may foreshadow a return to long-range missile testing by North Korea.

North Korea Announces Completion of ‘Very Important’ Test at Satellite Launching Ground
Credit: AP Photo/KCNA, File

On Sunday morning, a spokesperson for North Korea‘s Academy of National Defense Science announced that an unspecified, but important, test had taken place the country‘s Sohae Satellite Launching Ground, a facility on its west coast that has been used for both launching space launch vehicles and testing large liquid propellant engines for ballistic missiles. The test did not involve a missile launch, but appeared to be a ground-based test — possibly of a new engine.

“A very important test took place at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground on the afternoon of December 7, 2019,” the statement, which appeared in the outward-facing Korean Central News Agency, noted. “The Academy of the National Defence Science of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea made a report on the results of the successful test of great significance to the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea,” it continued.

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