Security Council Warns North Korea on Missile Test

The U.N. Security Council warned North Korea against carrying out a long-range missile test after fresh analysis of new satellite imagery confirmed apparent North Korean preparations for an imminent test.

"We all agree it would be extremely inadvisable to proceed with the test," the head of the North Korea sanctions committee at the council, Portuguese Ambassador Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, told reporters in New York on Thursday.

The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said new images provided by satellite operator DigitalGlobe clearly pointed to advanced launch preparations at the Sohae satellite launch station.

"If Pyongyang follows past practice in preparing for a launch, it could be ready to fire a rocket as early as the end of the first week in December," Nick Hansen, an expert on imagery analysis, wrote on the institute's website 38 North.

The analysis highlighted images showing trailers used for carrying the first two stages of an Unha-3 rocket parked near the main missile assembly building.

"(This is) a clear indicator that the rocket stages are being checked out before moving to the pad for an eventual launch," Hansen said.

Empty tanks spotted at four locations indicated that the propellant buildings at the pad have likely been filled in preparation for fuelling the rocket, he added.

In Seoul, a senior government official said South Korea believed preparations for a test had "entered a final stage.”

"But there is no telling whether or when it would go ahead," the official, who declined to be identified, told Agence France Presse.

North Korea is known to have an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) in development -- the Taepodong-2 -- but it has never been tested successfully.

In April, North Korea failed with a much-hyped launch of an Unha-3 that Pyongyang said was aimed at placing a satellite in orbit.