The $250-million launchfacility where the rocket was set to lift off is being set as the stage for an ambitiousspaceprogram, includinglong-rangeplans to land South Koreanprobes on the moon.
North Korea announced Tuesday it is leaving the Chinese-sponsored six-party talks on its nuclear program and will restart its plutonium facility at Yongbyon in response to a U.N.Security Council statement condemning its April 5 launch of a long-range ballistic missile.
VOA: standard.2009.04.15
Analysts in the U.S. and elsewhere call the launchfacility Tongchang, because it is close to a small village by that name.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has always been incredibly secretive about his own space investment, a company called Blue Origin based near Seattle but with a rocket launchfacility out in the wilds of west Texas.