North Korea may test another intercontinental ballistic missile as early as Wednesday night, while Iran is preparing to launch a rocket into space, according to senior U.S. officials.
Two U.S. officials told Fox News that fueling equipment and several trucks were near a launch pad in the northwestern part of North Korea.
Wednesday is the 64th anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement, which ended the fighting in the Korean War, and North Korea has been known to launch missiles on celebrated dates and anniversaries.
North Korea currently has long-range missiles that are capable of reaching Alaska, and successfully launched one on July 4 that landed in the Sea of Japan after traveling 1,700 miles into space. U.S. officials believe the expected missile launch will be testing the "re-entry" of these missiles.
Iran is expected to launch a rocket into space with the intention of bringing a satellite into orbit. Iran's last attempt to put a satellite into orbit, which failed, was in April 2016.
The similar timing of the launches is believed to be coincidental, although the two countries have been accused of sharing missile technology. Jeffrey Lewis, a missile proliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, said that early Iranian missiles were near exact copies of North Korean ones.
"The very first missiles we saw in Iran were simply copies of North Korean missiles," Lewis said. "Over the years, we've seen photographs of North Korean and Iranian officials in each other's countries, and we've seen all kinds of common hardware."
Iran insists its rocket technology is for peaceful purposes, much like its nuclear program, although both can be turned into military use.