Last July we brought you news that North Korea had begun to dismantle their Sohae Satellite Launching Station, their main launching station since 2012. It seemed like solid progress toward denuclearization.
But now that seems to have changed. New satellite images show that North Korea has begun to rebuild the missile site, not even a week after this second Trump Kim summit that ended in a stalemate:
Just days after the summit ended in stalemate, satellite images show workers have been active at North Korea's Sohae Satellite Launching Station, a partially disassembled missile test facilityhttps://t.co/7lmDLwUSZU pic.twitter.com/zylPTVjY0A
— MPR News (@MPRnews) March 6, 2019
MPR NEWS – Satellite imagery suggests that North Korea may be taking steps to reactivate a partially decommissioned long-range rocket test site on the ‘country’s west coast.
Experts say they see evidence that workers are rebuilding at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station. In a matter of days, a rocket-engine test stand and a large transfer structure have been reassembled, according to Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., a senior fellow for imagery analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The structures were taken down over the course of last summer, Bermudez says, and reassembled in a matter of days.
“We’ve seen a remarkably quick rebuilding,” he says.
News of the apparent activity comes less than a week after a second summit between the U.S. and North Korea ended in stalemate. President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 27 and 28. But the two sides wrapped up talks early after it became apparent that they were far apart on any deal over North Korea’s nuclear program.
North Korea wanted sanctions relief in exchange for the dismantlement of a major nuclear weapons research site at Yongbyon. The U.S., meanwhile, insisted that the North must surrender its entire nuclear program in exchange for economic benefits.
The Sohae facility, also referred to as Dongchang-ri and Tongchang-ri, is the site from which North Korea attempted satellite launches in 2012 and 2016. It’s also the location of a test stand that Pyongyang has used to fire some of its rocket engines on the ground.
More recently, Sohae figured prominently in the ongoing talks between North Korea and the United States. Last June, after the first U.S.-North Korea summit, in Singapore, Trump said Kim had given his word that he would close “a major missile-engine testing site.”
Sounds like Kim has gone back on his word.
I guess sanction relief is a big reason he came to the table in the first place. Since he’s not getting it, he’s playing hardball and re-nuclearizing.
Here’s the two satellite photos showing the rebuilding (click to enlarge):
I a related piece of news, John Bolton has already said today that if North Korea refused to denuclearize, the Trump administration would turn up the pressure with more sanctions:
REUTERS – President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, said on Tuesday that the United States would look at ramping up sanctions on North Korea if Pyongyang did not scrap its nuclear weapons program.
Bolton told Fox Business Network that following the Hanoi summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Washington would see whether Pyongyang was committed to giving up its “nuclear weapons program and everything associated with it.”
“If they’re not willing to do it, then I think President Trump has been very clear … they’re not going to get relief from the crushing economic sanctions that have been imposed on them and we’ll look at ramping those sanctions up in fact,” said Bolton, a hardliner who has advocated a tough approach to North Korea in the past.
Looks like things are going to heat back up again between the US and North Korea. Trump’s gonna have to play hardball if he wants to get this angry little dictator’s attention.