Blast from the past

SPECULATION swirled a year ago when Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s leader, had not been seen in public for over a month. He even skipped nationwide celebrations for the anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, through which his despotic family has ruled the North for three generations. Bets were cast over the cause of his disappearance; everything from gout to a coup was put forward. Yet Mr Kim returned to view, and on October 10th he is likely to be at the centre of the party’s huge 70th anniversary celebrations. Outsiders are musing again—this time over the timing of rocket launches and nuclear tests.

Last month North Korea announced that its main nuclear-reprocessing facility at Yongbyon, shuttered in 2007 in an international deal that saw North Korea supplied with oil for power stations, was up and running again; restarting Yongbyon is being viewed as a taunt to the outside world. Scientists then invited CNN, an American broadcaster, to a new satellite control centre, to convey that a satellite launch was “imminent”. Outside experts suspect the North’s satellite launches are a way for it to learn how to perfect long-range missiles—including, eventually, nuclear-tipped ones—even though the UN Security Council bans North Korea from using ballistic-missile technology.