North Korea may ready rocket launch, blames US for summit flop

North Korea are preparing to launch a missile or rocket in the near future, satellite images of activity in the country suggests, according to radio network NPR, while the country's state media said the world is blaming the US for ending the Hanoi summit without an agreement.

The images were taken on Feb. 22 at the Sanumdong facility near Pyongyang, where North Korea has assembled some of its intercontinental ballistic missiles and satellite-launching rockets, NPR reported.

They show trucks and cars parked nearby, while rail cars sit in a yard, where two cranes are erected, it said. The pictures were taken by DigitalGlobe and shared exclusively with NPR.

"When you put all that together, that's really what it looks like when the North Koreans are in the process of building a rocket," Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Project at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, told NPR.