Washington: If satellite imagery is to believed, North Korea may have already started the process to dismantle its key facilities at a site used to develop engines for ballistic missiles. The step seems to be the first one toward fulfilling a promise made to US President Donald Trump at a summit held in June, a think tank based in Washington said on Monday.
The imagery dated July 20 displayed work going on at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station to dismantle a facilities building used to assemble space-launch vehicles and a nearby rocket engine test stand used in developing 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.
At the news conference after his unprecedented June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump told that Kim had pledged that very soon a major missile engine testing site would be destroyed.
Trump did not elaborate on details regarding the site, but a US official subsequently told Reuters that it was Sohae.
There were growing concerns over North Korea’s willingness to live up to the commitments Kim made at the summit, specifically to work towards denuclearization of the state. The 38 North report comes to the fore in such a doubtful atmosphere.
US officials maintained their stance by saying that North Korea has committed to giving up a nuclear programme that now threatens the US, but Pyongyang has offered no details as to how it might be done.
According to the managing editor of 38 North, Jenny Town, the work at Sohae could bring fruitful moves to keep negotiations going between the two states. The 38 North is based at Washington’s Stimson Center.
“This could (and that’s a big could) mean that North Korea is also willing to forgo satellite launches for the time being as well as nuclear and missile tests. This distinction has derailed diplomacy in the past,” she said.
Senior officials from the US called on Kim to brings his words of promise into action regarding giving up of his nuclear weapons and said that the world, including China and Russia, must put pressure on Pyongyang by enforcing sanctions until he does so.
The US State Department on Monday issued an advisory alerting businesses about North Korea’s sanctions-evasion tactics. The advisory was given together with the departments of Treasury and Homeland Security.
It said they should “implement effective due diligence policies, procedures, and internal controls to ensure compliance with applicable legal requirements across their entire supply chains.”
The information that Trump was angry because progress was not happening fast enough with North Korea was rejected as “Fake News” by Trump in a tweet on Monday.
“Wrong, very happy!” he said in the Tweet.
“A Rocket has not been launched by North Korea in 9 months. Likewise, no Nuclear Tests. Japan is happy, all of Asia is happy,” he said.
According to a report in the Washington Post at the weekend said that despite those positive assessments Trump has given over the progress with North Korea, he has time to time vented his anger at his aides for a lack of immediate progress.
Trump last week said that there was “no rush” and “no time limit” over denuclearization negotiations.
Dan Coats, US Director of National Intelligence, said on Thursday that it was technically very much possible for North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme within a year, but further added that it was not very much likely to happen.
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