History
Signs of construction were visible during the early 1990s and became more pronounced by the early 2000s. A major progress in the construction was discovered in 2008 by Jane's Information Group, which requested imagery from the satellite company DigitalGlobe. Movements from the Sanum’dong missile research factory with the erector transporter and railroad, road transportation to the space center of a prototype Unha-3 class booster first two stages initially took place over May 29–31, 2009 possibly for logistics testing as well as personnel facilities infrastructure testing training purposes. The results of those tests suggest that military and design specialists ultimately decided to build a facilities access railroad to cut down the 15 kilometer road access logistics issues to the space center.
By early 2011 it was reported that the construction was completed and that it had been under construction for a decade. The first official mention of the site took place in March 2012 when North Korea announced it will launch from that site the satellite Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3. On April 2012, prior to the launch of the satellite, Jang Myong-jin, director of the Sohae, introduced the launching process of the Unha-3 rocket (Korean: 은하-3호, 銀河-3) during a guided media tour.
The first launch of Kwangmyongsong-3 on 12 April 2012 failed. On December 1, 2012, the Korean Central News Agency announced that a second version of Kwangmyongsong-3 is to be launched from Sohae between December 10 and December 22, 2012.
Read more about this topic: Sohae Satellite Launching Station
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