(CNN) Satellite images suggest that North Korea could be preparing to launch a missile or space rocket in the near future, analysts said Friday, signaling a potential blow to US-North Korea relations.

The commercial images, taken on February 22 by imaging company DigitalGlobe, reveal an uptick in activity at a facility in Sanumdong, a suburb of the capital Pyongyang. North Korea has previously assembled some of its intercontinental ballistic missiles and satellite-launching rockets at Sanumdong.

The release of the images follows an assessment by respected North Korea monitoring website 38 North that the Sohae satellite launch facility, which had been partially disassembled as part of disarmament steps, is now back to normal operational status after a flurry of restoration work in recent weeks -- work that appears to have picked up after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump's failed summit in Hanoi on February 28.

"We're seeing a lot of vehicle activity at the Sanumdong facility and also at the rail transfer point where it would be loaded and taken to Sohae," said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Project at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, who has studied the new images.

"I think the evidence points to a satellite launch, and not just the evidence at Sanumdong, but also the evidence from Sohae."

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