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No immediate signs of DPRK's long-range rocket launch: S.Korea

Xinhua, October 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

There has been no immediate signs detected yet that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) would launch a long-range rocket, South Korea's defense ministry said Friday. "There is no sign yet that the long-range rocket launch (by the DPRK) is immediate,"Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told a press briefing.

Some Japanese media recently reported that freight trains loaded with a long-range rocket headed to the DPRK's rocket base at Tongchang-ri in the northwest DPRK.

The spokesman said that the ministry doesn't need to confirm Japanese media reports, but he noted that freight trains irrelevant to the rocket launch can move within the DPRK territory.

Kim added that it would not be right to link the freight trains move to the preparations for the long-range rocket launch.

The DPRK recently erected a 67-meter launch tower for long- range rockets, taller than the previous 50-meter pad at the rocket base in Tongchang-ri. The country fired a three-stage Unha-3 rocket into orbit in December 2012, two months before its third nuclear test. Endi