According to a new report, North Korea has begun dismantling a missile testing site that it had agreed to dismantle at Trump’s summit with Kim Jong Un:
YONHAP – North Korea has begun to dismantle a missile engine testing site in line with a promise made by its leader, Kim Jong-un, at his historic summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, a website monitoring the regime said Monday.
According to 38 North, new satellite imagery from July 20 shows key facilities being dismantled at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, the country’s main such location since 2012.
The facilities include a rail-mounted processing building, which is used to assemble space launch vehicles before they are moved to the launch pad. Also being dismantled is a rocket engine test stand that has been used to build liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles, the article said.
“Since these facilities are believed to have played an important role in the development of technologies for the North’s intercontinental ballistic missile program, these efforts represent a significant confidence building measure on the part of North Korea,” it said, adding that the work probably began sometime within the past two weeks.
Trump announced after his summit with Kim in Singapore that the North Korean leader had agreed to destroy a missile engine testing site.
Well it’s a start – and it’s not going to happen overnight. But we are almost a month and a half and this is the first we’ve heard of any dismantling since the summit.
And of course I’m worried that this site is one Kim doesn’t really need and he’s duping us. But 38 North says these efforts represent something significant, so I guess we’ll wait for more. But I’m still very skeptical, as I’m sure some of you are as well.