North Korea carries out ‘test of great significance’
SEOUL: North Korea has carried out a "very important" test at its Sohae satellite launch site, state media KCNA reported yesterday. The site is a rocket testing ground that US officials once said North Korea had promised to close.
The reported test comes as a year-end deadline North Korea has imposed nears, warning it could take a "new path" amid stalled denuclearisation talks with the US.
The KCNA report called it a "successful test of great significance", but did not specify what was tested.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, which usually issues alerts if a missile is seen launching from North Korea, declined to comment.
Missile experts said it appeared likely that the North Koreans had conducted a static test of a rocket engine, rather than a missile launch.
"If it is indeed a static engine test for a new solid or liquid fuel missile, it is yet another loud signal that the door for diplomacy is quickly slamming, if it isn't already," said Associate Professor Vipin Narang, a nuclear affairs expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"This could be a very credible signal of what might await the world after the New Year." - REUTERS
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