North Korea has begun rebuilding a missile launch facility that was partly destroyed last year, according to satellite imagery taken two days after Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un failed to reach a denuclearisation deal at their summit in Vietnam.
The North Korean regime is “pursuing a rapid rebuilding” of a long-range missile test site at Sohae, according to satellite images obtained by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think-tank. The photos were captured on March 2, two days after the collapse of the Hanoi summit and before Mr Kim had even returned to Pyongyang.
North Korea last July dismantled part of the Tongchang-ri missile launch facility in Sohae, in what was seen as a nascent sign of progress just after the landmark Singapore summit between Mr Trump and the North Korean dictator. The reversal comes on the heels of the decision by Mr Trump in Hanoi to reject a proposed deal in which Pyongyang would destroy a large portion of its nuclear infrastructure in return for lifting crippling economic sanctions.