Satellite images show North Korea is 'dismantling facilities at ballistic missile site'
The move is said to be the regime's first step in fulfilling a pledge made to the US at the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore.
Tuesday 24 July 2018 07:24, UK
Satellite images show North Korea has started dismantling key facilities at a site used to develop engines for ballistic missiles, according to a Washington-based think tank.
The move is said to be the dictatorship's first step towards fulfilling a pledge made to the US President Donald Trump in June.
The satellite images from 20 July showed work had been carried out at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station to dismantle a building used to assemble space-launch vehicles.
Work has also started to dismantle a nearby rocket engine test stand used to develop liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles and space-launch vehicles, the 38 North think tank said.
It added in its report: "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."
The US president told a news conference after the unprecedented 12 June summit that Mr Kim had promised that a major missile engine testing site would be destroyed very soon.
Mr Trump did not specifically identify the site, but a US official subsequently told Reuters that it was Sohae.
The US secretary of state Mike Pompeo visited Pyongyang on 6 June to agree the details of a deal ahead of the summit between the two leaders.
Relations between the US and North Korea appeared to take a dive as North Korea accused the US of a "gangster-like mindset" during the high-level negotiations.
The country's state media later suggested that Mr Kim visted a potato farm when he should have been meeting with Mr Pompeo.