U.S. Preparing for 'Christmas Gift' Mentioned by North Korea

North Korea has built a new structure at a military site where it produces long-range missiles, a worrying sign that the isolated nation is preparing the "Christmas gift" it warned the U.S. about: a long-range missile test.

Planets Labs released satellite imagery showing the new structure at the March 16 Factory near Pyongyang, a site North Korea reportedly uses to build mobile launchers for its long-range missiles, according to the AP.

North Korea doesn't really do Christmas cards, but if it did, its card would probably have a picture of the nation's leader, Kim Jong Un, riding a white horse through a snowy wilderness. In fact, North Korean state media released those exact images this month, and the message was clear: Kim, frustrated with how things were going, was pondering a new direction.

"The idea is that he was making this journey to commune with the universe in order to settle on his course," says Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the...