North Korea appears to be rebuilding part of a missile testing facility, according to satellite images and analysis.
Two websites that monitor North Korea, Beyond Parallel and 38 North, observed activity at the Sohae Tongchang-ri satellite launch facility, which was previously used to test long-range missile engines.
The site has been dormant since August 2018, just two months after President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in their first bilateral meeting in Singapore, CNN reported. Trump and Kim last year signed a joint statement that pledged to work toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The activity at the site comes just days after the second summit between Trump and Kim, which took place in Hanoi, Vietnam at the end of last month, and ended abruptly with no deal between Washington, D.C., and Pyongyang.
“This renewed activity, taken just two days after the inconclusive Hanoi summit between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un, may indicate North Korean plans to demonstrate resolve in the face of U.S. rejection of North Korea’s demands at the summit to lift five UN Security Council sanctions enacted in 2016-2017,” the Beyond Parallel project said regarding the activity at the launch site.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that although the February summit was cut short it was “very good and constructive.”
Trump also said that there would continue to be talks with North Korea and “the relationship is as good as it has ever been — better.”
