[Editorial] North Korea’s shutdown of Tongchang Village rocket facilities shows commitment to summit agreement

An image of North Korea’s Sohae Satellite Launching Station released by 38 North on July 23, showing the dismantlement of the rocket test stand. Compared to the above image, the upper portion of the structure has been totally dismantled. The white structure designed to hide the stand has also been removed. (38 North website)

North Korea is dismantling facilities at its Sohae (West Sea) Satellite Launching Station, North Korea’s missile engine testing grounds in Tongchang Village, North Pyongan Province, according to a July 24 report by 38 North, a US-based website specializing in North Korean affairs. The North appears to have taken this bold step to implement the agreement reached during its summit with the US on June 12 in an attempt to break out of the deadlock in its negotiations with the US.

Satellite imagery taken on July 20 and 22 and released by 38 North show that North Korea is dismantling a rail-mounted processing and transport building used to assemble the launch vehicle. There is also evidence that the rocket-engine test stand, which had been used in the development of liquid fuel ballistic missiles, is being taken apart.

Given the increasing conflict between North Korea and the US over exchanging regime security for denuclearization, this measure is particularly significant. During the North Korea-US summit in Singapore, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promised US President Donald Trump that the missile engine testing ground would soon be destroyed. Trump has also stressed that Kim’s commitments to repatriate the remains of American POW/MIA and shut down the engine test site showed that the summit had been a success.

And in fact, the launch site at Tongchang Village poses a legitimate threat to the US, since the facility is capable of upgrading and launching nuclear-tipped ICBMs. That’s also why Trump had repeatedly called on Kim to fulfill his promise to shut down the engine test site despite his willingness to extend the timeframe for achieving the goal of North Korea’s denuclearization. But as time has passed without the remains being returned or the test site being shut down, Trump has been accused by American figures of falling for the North’s delaying tactics.

We hope this action by North Korea, along with the repatriation of the remains of American soldiers that is supposed to take place at Panmunjeom on July 27, will represent a turning point, putting the two sides’ denuclearization talks back on track.

“This will have a positive effect on denuclearization,” said Nam Gwan-pyo, deputy director of the Blue House National Security Office.

The Washington Post also described this as a small but meaningful step toward the denuclearization agreed upon during the North Korea-US summit on June 12.

In the short term, North Korea and the US need to speed up the organization of a working group for the technical negotiations about denuclearization. That’s the best way for the North to support the South Korean government’s efforts to speed up the declaration of the end of the Korean War as the North desires.

Unification Minister Cho Myung-gyon appeared before the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee and expressed the government’s hope that the war could be formally ended within the year. Though there has been some talk about the idea of the leaders of South Korea, North Korea and the US meeting during the UN General Assembly this September to make the declaration, it’s still unclear whether that would be feasible.

We also hope the US will respond to the shutdown of the launch site at Tongchang Village by more quickly proposing a plan to guarantee Pyongyang’s security by formally ending the war, among other measures.

A satellite image of a North Korean Sohae Satellite Launching Station, a rocket-engine test stand, taken on Mar. 26 published by 38 North in June. The facilities at the top of the image are the rocket engine test stand, while the white structure in the center is thought to serve as a means to hide the test stand. (38 North website)

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