North Korea "almost" done rebuilding key rocket test site month after Trump-Kim summit, South says

MARCH 29, 2019 / 7:01 AM / CBS/AFP

Seoul -- North Korea has almost completed rebuilding a long-range rocket site it had promised to close, South Korean lawmakers told reporters on Friday after a closed-door meeting with intelligence officials in Seoul. The claim comes a month after a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in February ended without an agreement, deepening a gap between the two on how to achieve Mr. Trump's stated goal of "complete denuclearization."

Shortly after the end of the Hanoi summit, a series of satellite images emerged suggesting increased activity at the North's Sohae rocket site, triggering international alarm that the nuclear-armed state might be preparing a long-range or space launch.

"The North began rebuilding the center, which was partly dismantled last July, before the North-U.S. summit in February," lawmaker Kim Min-ki told reporters after the closed-door briefing by the National Intelligence Service.

"The work is almost complete with some maintenance activity being underway," he said.

North Korea has been banned by the UN Security Council from carrying out space launches, as some of its technology was similar to that used for intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs.

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