North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered a new aerospace entity to prepare to test-launch what the country calls a rocket carrying a satellite in October to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the country's ruling party, sources in a number of governments said Monday.
Kim directly instructed the National Aerospace Development Administration earlier this year to implement the project that the United States, Japan and South Korea suspect will effectively be a test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile the secretive country is allegedly developing, according two of the sources.
North Korea was widely regarded in December 2012 as having test-launched a long-range missile.