Assessing the intentions of North Korea’s secretive regime and the nation’s technical capabilities is notoriously difficult|It says tanks installed last fall into support buildings that would be used to store fuel propellant prior to a launch would be big enough for rockets three or four times larger than the Unha|”This analysis is just another piece of the puzzle indicating North Korea’s intention to field increasingly capable long-range missiles able to carry nuclear warheads,” said Joel Wit, a former State Department official and editor of 38 North}

WASHINGTON North Korea is upgrading one of its two major missile launch sites, 성남출장마사지 apparently to handle much bigger rockets, and some design features suggest it is getting help from Iran, a U.S. research institute said Thursday.

A successful satellite launch in December, and a nuclear test on Tuesday, both in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions, have intensified concern that North Korea is moving toward its goal of building a bomb small enough to be fitted on an intercontinental missile.

An analysis written for 38 North, the website of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, indicates that North Korea has made significant progress since October in constructing a new launchpad and other facilities at Tonghae, on the country’s northeast coast. The assessment is based on commercial satellite photos, the latest taken in January.

It says design features, including a flame trench covering that protects large rockets from the hot exhaust gases they emit on takeoff, is similar to one at a launch complex in Semnan, Iran, and hasn’t been used by the North before.