President Trump’s national security team is closely monitoring North Korea’s Sohae Satellite Launching Ground, which North Korea leader Kim Jong-un promised to dismantle during the Singapore summit, a White House official said Wednesday.
Satellite images of the missile test site have shown no activity suggesting it was being dismantled. But National Security Council officials were not yet raising alarms over the inaction just a week after Mr. Kim made the promise to Mr. Trump in Singapore.
“As the president said at the Singapore summit, Chairman Kim promised that North Korea will destroy a missile engine test stand soon,” said an NSC official.
The official confirmed for the first time that the site identified by Mr. Kim was the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground, a facility in Ch’olsan County, North Pyongan province.
“North Korea has used this site to test liquid propellant engines for its long range ballistic missiles. The United States will continue to monitor this site closely as we move forward in our negotiations,” said the official.
The focus on the missile site coincided with growing impatience from Washington to Seoul for some tangible progress on the denuclearization deal.
The pledge to destroy the missile engine facility was made in addition to the four-point declaration signed June 12 by Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim. Although unwritten, it was the only specific step agreed upon at the summit for dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.
“We agreed to that after the agreement was signed. That’s a big thing,” Mr. Trump said at a post-summit press conference in Singapore. “The site will be destroyed very soon.”
The declaration outlined the two leaders’ commitment to denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula in exchange for U.S. security guarantees. The details, including a timeline for North Korea to give up its nukes and an inspection process to verify it, still need to be negotiated.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday called on North Korea to move quickly on presenting a clear plan of actionable steps that it will take to dismantle the nuclear program.
“It’s necessary for North Korea to present far more concrete denuclearization plans, and I think it’s necessary for the United States to swiftly reciprocate by coming up with comprehensive measures,” Mr. Moon said in Seoul, according to The Associated Press.
His call for action came as Mr. Kim concluded a two-day visit to Beijing to brief Chinese President Xi Jinping on the summit.
Mr. Kim promised Mr. Xi close cooperation in securing “true peace” and the “opening a new future” on the Korean Peninsula, reported the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.
China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency quoted Mr. Xi as extolling the warming friendship with Mr. Kim. The report did not mention any specific discussions on progress on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Mr. Xi said China is pleased that “the momentum for dialogue and easing of situation on the Korean Peninsula has been effectively strengthened,” according to Xinhua.
Meanwhile, the Republican chairman of a key House subcommittee on Asia cast aspersions on the summit agreement and called on Washington to be vigilant that China may seek to delay the denuclearization process.
While Mr. Xi has said that he hopes Washington and Pyongyang can work toward denuclearization, Rep. Ted Yoho, Florida Republican, warned during a hearing on Capitol Hill that an “indefinite standoff between the United States and a nuclear North Korea is in China’s strategic interest.”
“We can’t forget that Xi Jinping has broken his diplomatic standoff with Kim to maximize his influence in the ongoing talks,” said Mr. Yoho, who heads the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. “[Mr. Xi] certainty wouldn’t mind wiping out the progress that we’ve made, turning back the clock a year or two and maintaining control over the perpetual threat to the United States that he can modulate through economic leverage.”
Mr. Yoho praised the Singapore summit as a historic step brought about by Mr. Trump, but he also expressed concern that the president may have too eagerly conceded to North Korea, China and Russia by agreeing to indefinitely suspend U.S.-South Korea joint military drills.
“Nothing would make China and Russia happier than for the United States to scale back our strategic capabilities in Northeast Asia,” he said. “The white house has given some assurances that halting these exercises won’t effect readiness. But Congress must ensure that our defensive options are not effected and that the exercises can resume at the first sign of trouble.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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