Trump’s comments back US report of razed N. Korea test site
SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of — President Donald Trump’s comments on Tuesday that North Korea was destroying a major missile engine testing site seemed to support a recent U.S. study that the country was razing a facility that had been crucial to its development of mid-range solid-fuel missiles.
Trump said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un informed him of this development during their summit in Singapore, but did not give a location for the site. Trump was defending the wording of a joint statement between the leaders that offered only vague aspirations on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula while saying that Kim has genuine interest to relinquish his nuclear program.
In a study published last week in the North Korea-focused 38 North website, U.S. analyst Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. said recent commercial satellite images showed the North was razing a missile test stand near the northwest city of Kusong.
Bermudez said the stand was North Korea’s only known facility used for land-based and canister-launched missile ejection tests that were critical for developing the solid-fuel Pukguksong-2 missiles. The stand could also have been used for testing larger canister-based ballistic missiles, such as an intercontinental ballistic missile displayed during a military parade in Pyongyang in April last year, he wrote.