SEOUL: North Korea has started dismantling some facilities at its main satellite launch station, seen as the testing ground for its intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to expert analysis of recent satellite images.If confirmed, the analysis by respected US-based website 38 North could signal a step forward after last month's landmark summit between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump , although some experts questioned the significance of the gesture.After the summit, Trump had declared the North Korean nuclear threat was effectively over, and US media reports suggest he is privately furious at the lack of any subsequent progress on the denuclearisation issue.His public statements, however, remain upbeat and the 38 North analysis came as the president pronounced himself "very happy" with the way talks were progressing with Pyongyang.The website said imagery indicated the North had begun taking down a processing building and a rocket-engine test stand that had been used to test liquid-fuel engines at its Sohae Satellite Launching Station Sohae, on the northwest coast of North Korea, is ostensibly a facility designed for putting satellites into orbit, but rocket engines are easily repurposed for use in missiles and the international community has labelled Pyongyang's space programme a fig leaf for weapons tests.38 North analyst Joseph Bermudez called the move an "important first step" for Kim in fulfilling a promise that Trump said the North Korean leader made during their June summit in Singapore.Since Sohae is "believed to have played an important role in the development of technologies for the North's intercontinental ballistic missile program, these efforts represent a significant confidence-building measure on the part of North Korea," Bermudez said.Trump said in Singapore that Kim had committed to destroying a "major" missile engine test site, without specifying the site.Sohae has been the North's primary rocket launch site since 2012, and some experts cautioned against reading too much into the work described in the 38 North analysis.Melissa Hanham, senior research associate with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, said that while dismantling the engine test site was a "good move", it amounted to "the bare minimum" that could be done at Sohae. The July 20 images showed work at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station to dismantle a building used to assemble space-launch vehicles and a nearby rocket engine test stand used to develop liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles and space-launch vehicles, the 38 North think tank said. Bermudez notes that in the images from July 22, the test stand appears to have been “completely dismantled”, adding that “given the state of activity, work is likely to have begun sometime within the past two weeks.”

On Twitter, 38 North’s founder, Joel Wit, said the images suggested that North Korea may be willing to “give up its space launch programme.” Wit, a former State Department negotiator with North Korea and a consistent advocate for dialogue with Pyongyang, said such a move would be just one step in the right direction, “but an important one.”

Notably, the timeline of the satellite images suggests that North Korea may have begun dismantling the facilities at Sohae after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Pyongyang in early July in a bid to make progress on the agreement reached in Singapore. “Since these facilities are believed to have played an important role in the development of technologies for the North’s intercontinental ballistic missile program, these efforts represent a significant confidence-building measure on the part of North Korea,” according to 38 North’s Joseph Bermudez Jr.

“Most notably, these include the rail-mounted processing building — where space launch vehicles are assembled before moving them to the launchpad — and the nearby rocket engine test stand used to develop liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles.”

Both Trump and his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, have been urging patience since the President held a historic summit with Kim in Singapore last month but the President has privately expressed frustration over the perceived lack of progress in talks, a US official told CNN.
Photos taken on July 20 and 22 and published by 38 North appear to show North Korea dismantling a ballistic missile launchpad and engine testing stand at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station.