South Korean government sources tell Japanese NHK that satellite images and other data reveal increased activity “at a missile base in Musudanri, North Hamgyeong Province, in the northeastern part of North Korea.”
Check out the english language news segment. Kyodo apparently has a similar story.
Manichi cites Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso confirming the presence of a missile at the launch site, but not much else:
In fact, we understand that it has been brought to the site. But we are not sure about any subsequent moves. We are collecting information. The general information we have now is conflicting.
For more information, you might check out two posts that I wrote earlier, North Korean Ballistic Missiles and Can North Korea Mate a Simple Fission Weapon to the Taepo Dong 2.
This seems like a good time to sit back and see what actually happens. There have been a number of stories over the past years with the format “someone in South Korea and/or Japan said something was afoot in NK based on satellite imagery” that haven’t panned out.
OTOH, if NK does test something like the TD-2 is supposed to be, it will change the complexion of discussions here quite a bit. For the past ten years, the TD-2’s status has been becoming ever more mythical, and at the moment it’s just as reasonable to think that the program no longer exists as it is that it has gone ahead but the NKs haven’t tested one for inscrutable NKish reasons.