Trump still open to talks

SEOUL: United States President Donald Trump is open to additional talks with Pyongyang over denuclearisation, his national security adviser said yesterday, despite reports North Korea is reactivating parts of its missile programme.

New activity has been detected at a factory that produced North Korea’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the US, South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo and Donga Ilbo newspapers reported, citing lawmakers briefed by the National Intelligence Service.

This week, two US thinktanks and Seoul’s spy agency said North Korea was rebuilding its Sohae rocket launch site, prompting Trump to say he would be ‘‘very, very disappointed’’ in North Korean leader Kim Jongun if it were true. The thinktanks yesterday said they believed the launch site was operational again.

Asked if he was disappointed about recent North Korean activity, Trump told reporters: ‘‘It’s disappointing’’, while adding without elaborating: ‘‘We’ll see. We’ll let you know in about a year.’’

The reports of North Korean activity raise more questions about the future of the dialogue Trump has pursued with Kim after a second summit between them broke down in Vietnam last week.

White House National Security Adviser John Bolton, who has argued for a tough approach to North Korea, said Trump was still open to more talks with the country.

A senior State Department official yesterday told reporters Washington was keen to resume talks as soon as possible, but North Korea’s negotiators needed to be given more latitude than they were ahead of the summit.

He said noone in the US administration advocated the incremental approach North Korea has been seeking and the condition for its integration into the global economy, a transformed relationship with the US and a permanent peace regime, was complete denuclearisation. —

PHOTOS: AP Keeping an eye . . . A man watches a TV screen showing an image of the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchangri, North Korea, during a news programme at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea.

Missile site . . . In this 2012 file photo, a soldier stands in front of the Unha3 rocket at a launching site in Tongchangri, North Korea. North Korea is reportedly restoring facilities at its longrange rocket launch site that it had dismantled as part of disarmament steps last year.