Sohae Satellite Launching Station
The Sohae Satellite Launching Station is a rocket launching site in North Korea. It's located in Tongch'ang-ri, Cholsan County, North Pyongan Province. The Sohae Satellite Launching Station is located at 39.660°N 124.705°E. It's also known as the Tongch'ang-dong Space Launch Center and Pongdong-ri. The station is located among hills. The spaceport was built on the site of the village Pongdong-ri which was displaced during construction.
The base is near the northern border with China. It is the place where self-proclaimed space launch vehicles such as Eunha 3 and Kwangmyeongseong 4 were launched in 2012. The Sohae Satellite Launching Station has been used to launch three-stage space launch vehicles (SLV).
In May 2023, North Korea launched its first military reconnaissance satellite, the Malligyong-1, from the new coastal launch pad at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station. However, the carrier rocket experienced engine failure and fell into the Yellow Sea. North Korea's second attempt to launch a spy satellite from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station ended in failure on T24 August 2023. The country cited "an error in the emergency blasting system during the third-stage flight". North Korea planned to try again within months.
Here, North Korea's ICBM research was actively conducted, and actual shooting was also conducted here. It is known that construction began during the Kim Jong-il era and was completed around 2009. It is one of the symbols of North Korea's military-first policy to the extent that Kim Jong-un also attended the completion ceremony at the time. It is known as the place where ICBM engine tests are conducted. At least, when it was packaged as a satellite , it was investigated about space development.
At the end of 2015, North Korea increased the length of the launch pad at the Sohae Satellite Launch Center in Dongchang-ri from 50m to 67m. And on February 7, 2016, the following year, it launched 'Kwangmyeongsong-4' equipped with a satellite on a long-distance rocket (missile). The Seohae Satellite Launching Station has an automatic opening and closing device attached to the launch pad and has a large assembly building to assemble the three-stage rocket propulsion system. Two automatic rails were laid from the assembly building at the launch site to the launch pad to automatically and quickly move the rocket propellant to the launch pad.
US President Donald Trump said during a summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June 2018 that Kim had promised to dismantle the missile engine test site. President Trump announced this through a press conference immediately after the summit with Chairman Kim, and the US media, citing US government officials, has pointed to the test site that Chairman Kim mentioned as the Seohae Satellite Launching Site.
In the text of the Pyongyang Joint Declaration, the meaning of the existence of this facility is more directly explained by the expression Dongchang-ri missile test site. As much as it is called in the declaration agreed by the two Koreas, North Korea is also acknowledging that it functions as a missile engine test site rather than a space development base. It was confirmed that the Dongchang-ri missile engine test site and missile launch pad will be permanently dismantled under the observation of experts from related countries.
After the summit in Pyongyang in 2018, Moon Jae-in and government officials touted this as an achievement, saying that the function of the Dongchang-ri laboratory was in fact limited. Demolition of some support facilities was confirmed by satellite imagery. He even used the word “assurance” . It is said that North Korea is also creating a peaceful mood to withdraw from ICBM development. However, the engine test in 2019 cost the Blue House a loss of face.
38 North, the U.S. the media specializing in North Korea, announced on 23 July 2018 that it appeared that North Korea was dismantling the "Seohae Satellite Launching Station," a ballistic missile test site, as a result of reading satellite images taken recently. 38 North said, "It appears that significant progress has been made in the disassembly," adding, "The disassembly seems to have started about two weeks ago." The photo was taken on 20 July 2918 the Seohae Satellite Site in Dongchang-ri, North Korea, where disassembly work was in progress on rail-mounted structures for assembling launch vehicles and rocket engine test stands for liquid fuel engine development just before launch.
A ROK government official said 23 July 2018, “We are monitoring whether North Korean leader Kim Jong-un intends to fulfill the promise he made to US President Donald Trump at the North Korea-US summit.” We are monitoring and tracking trends,” he said. He analyzed, “If North Korea has started to dismantle the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, this can be seen as an action to keep the momentum of North Korea-US dialogue going.” Joseph Bermudez, analyst at 38 North, said, “It is an important first step in fulfilling what North Korea promised after the June 12 North American summit.” If you look at it, these efforts can be seen as a significant trust-building measure by North Korea.”
But in 2019, it was openly focusing on engine development. In particular, two experiments were conducted in the second half of 2019. North Korea began rebuilding work on a rocket launch pad and missile engine test site, in an ominous sign about its attitude toward negotiations on denuclearization. The Washington Post reports in its article North Korea rebuilds rocket launch site, in ominous signal about attitude to talks that the rebuilding work began some time between Feb. 16 and March 2, according to satellite imagery, meaning it began either just before or immediately after the breakdown of a summit meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, on 28 February 2019. The site had previously been used to launch satellites rather than missiles, but North Korea had stated it was being dismantled and had promised to allow in international inspectors to verify that process, in a move widely cited as a sign of its good faith.
The Tonghang-ri site is situated at the Sohae space station and is North Korea's largest missile engine test site. Work to dismantle it began shortly after denuclearization negotiations with the United States began, but stalled from August 2018. Now it had gone into reverse. "It's unfortunate because this was one of the unilateral steps that the North Koreans were making at the beginning of the negotiation process as sort of a confidence-building measure, and so certainly this does have implications for how the North Koreans are thinking about the negotiation process," said Jenny Town, managing editor of 38 North, a website devoted to analysis of North Korea. said. "It's highly unlikely that any of these kinds of unilateral measures will be offered again unless there is an actual agreement in place going forward."
On March 11 , 2022 , the Rodong Sinmun reported on Kim Jong-un's field visit. It was not specified on what day Kim Jong-un visited.[4] A bird's-eye view of support facilities was also confirmed while giving extensive modernization instructions. In the end, demolition of some buildings during the Moon Jae-in regime was demolished for remodeling . Here, it is expected to launch the next satellite Eunha-X equipped with a reconnaissance satellite .
In February 2023, a satellite image analysis came out that construction to increase the height of the launch pad was in progress. # Also, the pier is said to be under construction. It is an analysis that the purpose is to transport missile and rocket parts by boat, not by rail. #
Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, inspected the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground 11 March 2023. Accompanying him were Kim Jong Sik, Jang Chang Ha and other leading officials of the munitions industry and national defence scientific research sectors and officials concerned of the National Aerospace Development Administration.
"Going round different parts of the ground, the respected General Secretary set forth a target for modernizing it and the detailed orientation and ways for doing so. He learned about and evaluated the present state of the ground, and advanced the task to modernize it on an expansion basis so that various rockets could be launched to carry multi-purpose satellites, including a military reconnaissance satellite, in the future. He also set forth the task for building some facilities in the launching ground.
"To enable large carrier rockets to be launched there, he assigned the tasks for reconstructing on an expansion basis the launching ground zone and the facilities for the general assembly and trial gearing of rocket and for the trial gearing of satellite, establishing extra facilities for the injection and supply of fuel and modernizing parts of the launch control facility and major technical posts on an expansion basis.
"He also gave detailed instructions as regards the matters arising in modernizing the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground on an expansion basis, including the matters of expanding the capacity of the engine ground jet test site, ensuring the convenience of carrier rocket transport, improving the ecological environment around the launching ground and building a grandstand in the safe zone opposite to the launching ground.
"He said that the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground is a place associated with the desire of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il for a space power and it is a significant place where our state successfully launched artificial satellites twice with its own efforts and technology, true to the lifetime intention of the President and the Chairman. And he stressed that it is the noble duty of our Party and space scientists and technicians in our era to turn the launching ground, associated with our state's great dream and ambition for a space power, into an ultramodern advanced base and a starting line of space conquest for the future suited to the prestige of the DPRK.
"Encouraged by his teachings, the officials, scientists and technicians hardened their strong will to turn the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground into the best model suitable for the dignity and prestige of our state by devotedly carrying out the militant tasks set forth by the General Secretary, fully aware of their mission as space pioneers who should surely carry into practice the grand plan of the Party Central Committee for building a space power, true to the behest of the President and the Chairman."
In May 2023, it is said that the construction of a new launch pad located on the coast has progressed rapidly. # Self-proclaimed military reconnaissance satellite is being viewed as an outpost to launch. North Korea is continuing construction to expand and modernize facilities at the Sohae satellite launch site in Dongchang-ri, Cholsan-gun, North Pyongan Province, 38 North, a US news outlet specializing in North Korea, reported 15 July 2023. 38 North said that satellite images taken on 30 June 2023 showed a truck crane installing new panels on the vertical engine test stand and folding screen. The vertical engine test bench is the largest liquid fuel engine test facility in North Korea.
38 North speculated that the purpose of the new panels was unclear, but could be for maintenance or cosmetic reasons. Between the 23rd and 30th of June, a new security checkpoint was built about 350 meters west of the coastal launch pad, and lights and sensors that will be used to check cargo and personnel before moving to the launch pad are also noticeable. In addition, the location of structures and materials has been changed and a new tunnel connecting the coast and the launch pad has been built. Construction is underway after Kim Jong-un ordered the expansion and renovation of facilities for modernization in March 2022, 38 North explained.
On 31 May 2023, when North Korea launched a reconnaissance satellite at the new West Sea satellite launch site, vehicles were observed, and all vehicles disappeared in two days at the existing West Sea launch site, which was busy together, drawing attention. Previously, in the satellite image of the Seohae satellite launch site released on the 31st, vehicles were captured aligned at the existing launch site.
At that time, about 18 to 20 trucks and vehicles were captured on the launch site, and a vehicle estimated to be 24 meters long carrying a space launch vehicle was also captured the day before. For this reason, the existing launch site was once considered a launch site, but it was also revealed that the launch took place at the new launch site through photos at the time of the launch released by North Korea. However, according to a private commercial satellite (Planet Labs) photo released on 02 June 2023, all vehicles have disappeared from the existing launch site.
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