North Korea "almost" done rebuilding key rocket test site month after Trump-Kim summit, South says

[Eugene]

Source: CBS/AFP

North Korea "almost" done rebuilding key rocket test site month after Trump-Kim summit, South says

MARCH 29, 2019 / 7:01 AM / CBS/AFP

Seoul -- North Korea has almost completed rebuilding a long-range rocket site it had promised to close, South Korean lawmakers told reporters on Friday after a closed-door meeting with intelligence officials in Seoul. The claim comes a month after a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in February ended without an agreement, deepening a gap between the two on how to achieve Mr. Trump's stated goal of "complete denuclearization."

Shortly after the end of the Hanoi summit, a series of satellite images emerged suggesting increased activity at the North's Sohae rocket site, triggering international alarm that the nuclear-armed state might be preparing a long-range or space launch.

"The North began rebuilding the center, which was partly dismantled last July, before the North-U.S. summit in February," lawmaker Kim Min-ki told reporters after the closed-door briefing by the National Intelligence Service.

"The work is almost complete with some maintenance activity being underway," he said.

North Korea has been banned by the UN Security Council from carrying out space launches, as some of its technology was similar to that used for intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs.

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Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-rocket-test-site-sohae-almost-complete-donald-trump-kim-jong-un/

[soryang]

1. Indications that solid fuel ballistic missile testing possible

This would be from another location than the Sohae space launch facility. I posted a link on the electronic telemetry emissions characteristic of Bulguksong missile launches being detected by US RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft on the Foreign Affairs thread a couple of days ago.

Warnings, Indications and Recriminations

https://www.democraticunderground.com/113323852

You know it's interesting how these articles in US media always focus on DPRK backpedaling and selling the same used car, etc., concerning failure of denuclearization efforts. But the failure of the US to offer any consideration for such efforts is not focused on. It's basically a coercive process on the US side accompanied by lots of PR. It's a very one sided all or nothing approach by the US where the bar keeps getting raised but nothing is offered in return.