Pyongyang announced last week that North Korea expects to launch another Unha series rocket/missile soon, saying that the test will be a "peaceful use of space."

It was an Unha-3, the latest edition in the series that lifted the non-functioning satellite into space in December of 2012. That satellite was set into a low-earth orbit.

North Korea’s Worker’s Party official newspaper stated that there will be at least six more satellite vehicles launched in the near future, culminating with a lunar-orbit vehicle on Unha-9.

The construction of a new, larger launch pad capable of launching larger rockets with heavier payloads was in the construction stage until work slowed to a complete stop in late 2012. The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins had expected for the work to begin again in the spring, but imagery taken in late May showed no sign of a resumption in construction. It is suspected that the halt of the construction was due to pressure from Beijing.

China’s relations have cooled somewhat with Pyongyang and after North Korea’s third nuclear test in February, Beijing joined others in the United Nation’s Security Council to pass a resolution increasing sanctions on North Korea for the nuclear test. Those sanctions caused North Korea to threaten its neighbors and the United States with all-out nuclear war.