Defense Agency chief Hosei Norota admitted to a Diet committee on Wednesday that the agency has obtained information suggesting that North Korea is constructing new missile facilities.
"We have obtained considerable pieces of fragmented information on the North Korean missile situation," the defense chief told the Upper House Budget Committee, answering a question by Liberal Party lawmaker Kiyoshi Asoda. "But taking every factor into consideration, we have not reached the conclusion that the North is preparing for another missile launch," Norota said.
Norota also told the committee that a missile-carrying vehicle left a North Korean military site and later returned to the same site, but said the agency has no idea what the motive for the action was. He did not specify the date on which the vehicle was moved.