N. KOREA DISMANTLING TEST SITE

Satellite images show dismantling work on facilities at site used to develop engines for missiles

SATELLITE images indicate North Korea has begun dismantling key facilities at a site used to develop engines for ballistic missiles, a first step toward fulfilling a pledge made to United States President Donald Trump, a Washington-based think tank said on Monday.

The July 20 images showed work at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station to dismantle a building used to assemble spacelaunch vehicles and a rocket engine test stand used to develop liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles and space-launch vehicles, the 38 North think tank 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 in a report.

Trump said after his June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore that Jong-un had promised that a major missile engine testing site would be destroyed very soon.

Trump did not identify the site, but a US official subsequently said it was Sohae.

An official yesterday said South Korea’s presidential Blue House was briefed about the site’s dismantlement based on intelligence, but did not elaborate.

The 38 North report comes amid growing questions about North Korea’s willingness to honour commitments Jong-un made at the June summit, particularly to work on denuclearisation.

On a related issue, South Korea’s Defence Ministry yesterday said it was planning “a test reduction of some guard post troops and equipment” along the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone that divides North and South Korea.