North Korea is restoring facilities at a long-range rocket launch site that it dismantled last year as part of disarmament steps, according to foreign experts and a South Korean lawmaker who was briefed by Seoul’s spy service.
The finding follows a high-stakes nuclear summit last week between North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and US President Donald Trump that ended without any agreement.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service provided the assessment about the North’s Tongchang-ri launch site to lawmakers during a private briefing Tuesday. North Korea didn’t immediately respond in its state media.
An article from 38 North, a website specialising in North Korea studies, cited commercial satellite imagery as indicating efforts to rebuild some structures at the site started sometime between February 16 and March 2. Dismantling parts of its long-range rocket launch facility was among several steps the North took last year when it entered nuclear talks with the US and South Korea. North has carried out satellite launches at the site in recent years, resulting in UN sanctions over expert claims that they were disguised tests of banned missile technology.