North Korea:  United States Detected Explosion at Missile Testing Site Last Year

The United States detected an explosion in November at a North Korean missile test site that appears to have set back Pyongyang’s efforts to develop the Taepodong 2 long-range ballistic missile, the Korea Herald reported today (see GSN, March 12).

The U.S. military informed the South Korean Defense Ministry of the explosion, which occurred at the site’s engine combustion chamber, a South Korean Defense Ministry source said.  The explosion caused “serious” amounts of damage to the site’s facilities, making it impossible for North Korea to conduct an engine combustion test for the Taepodong 2 missile, the source said.

The South Korean Defense Ministry would neither confirm nor deny the explosion.

“The ministry’s official position is NCND (neither confirm nor deny),” ministry spokesman Hwang Young-soo said (Kim Hyung-jin, Korea Herald, April 22).

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