Kim rebuilding launch site

North Korea

North Korea is restoring facilities at a long-range rocket launch site that it dismantled last year as part of disarmament steps, according to foreign experts and a South Korean lawmaker who was briefed by Seoul’s spy service.

The finding follows a highstakes nuclear summit last week between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump that ended without any agreement.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service provided the assessment about the North’s Tongchang-ri launch site to lawmakers during a private briefing on Wednesday. North Korea didn’t immediately respond in its state media.

‘‘I would be very disappointed if that were happening,’’ Trump told reporters at the White House, adding that he would be ‘‘very, very disappointed in Chairman Kim.’’ He said it was ‘‘a very early report’’ and that ‘‘we’ll see what happens. We’ll take a look. It will ultimately get solved.’’

An article from 38 North ,a website specialising in North Korea studies, cited commercial satellite imagery as indicating that efforts to rebuild some structures at the site started sometime between February 16 and March 2.

Dismantling parts of its longrange rocket launch facility was among several steps the North took last year when it entered nuclear talks with the United States and South Korea. North Korea has carried out satellite launches at the site in recent years, resulting in UN sanctions over expert claims that they were disguised tests of banned missile technology.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the report might affect nuclear diplomacy. The Trumpkim summit fell apart because of differences over how much sanction relief North Korea could win in return for closing its aging main nuclear complex. The US and North Korea accused each other of causing the summit breakdown, but both sides left the door open for future negotiations.

Trump said Kim told him that North Korea would continue to suspend nuclear and missile tests while negotiations are underway, and South Korea and the US announced Sunday that they are eliminating massive springtime military drills and replacing them with smaller exercises in an effort to support the talks.

One of the South Korean lawmakers who attended the intelligence briefing said yesterday that NIS director Suh Hoon said that the move could be preparation to restart long-range rocket launches if nuclear diplomacy completely collapses. –AP

‘‘I would be very disappointed if that were happening.’’

President Donald Trump

AP A satellite image of North Korea’s Sohae facility. Satellite imagery showing new activity at the rocket launch site has raised doubt that Kim Jong Un will ever give up his nuclear weapons.