North Korea conducts 5 missile engine tests this year

South Korea's military intelligence agency confirmed Tuesday that North Korea has conducted five missile engine tests at the country's northwest site in Dongchang-ri this year and has been renovating the test facility since spring, Yonhap News Agency reported. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) briefed lawmakers of the parliamentary intelligence committee on the latest development of North Korea's missile and nuclear program, which has been making progress since its long-range rocket test in last December and third nuclear test in February. "North Korea has continued its missile development following its successful long-range rocket launch in December and conducted five engine tests at Dongchang-ri site this year alone," Rep. Cho Won-jin of the ruling Saenuri Party said in a briefing after a closed-door audit of the DIA, an intelligence agency under the defense ministry, according to the report. Construction has been under way since May to expand the missile launch site, while an underground nuclear test site in Punggye-ri in the northeast has been in atomic test-ready condition, Cho said. The DIA said the North has stepped up its forces targeting the heavily populated Seoul metropolitan area, placing 70 percent of its one million-strong armed forces, 80 percent of fire arms and 2,000 tanks within a 100-kilometer range of the front-line, the report added.