North Korea announced today that it will permanently close a major missile test site. Kim Jong Un, the North’s leader, said the site would…
North Korea announced today that it will permanently close a major missile test site. Kim Jong Un, the North’s leader, said the site would be dismantled in the presence of international inspectors.
But experts who have been watching the site say the gesture will do virtually nothing to hamper the North’s missile and nuclear weapons capabilities. Instead, they say, the move represents the latest in the North’s piecemeal disarmament on its own terms. In May, North Korea demolished entrances to its underground nuclear test site, without the presence of inspectors.
Closing this missile site «may not be completely cost-free, but in the grand scheme of things it’s not a particularly big step towards disarmament,» says Vipin Narang, an arms control researcher at MIT who follows the North’s program.
Narang notes this is the same site that North Korea promised to partially dismantle at the conclusion of talks with president Donald Trump back in June. «The fact that Kim is milking a single test-site for basically months on end is pretty remarkable,» Narang says.
The North’s announcement came during a summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The two leaders also discussed drawing down troops along the border between the two countries and a joint bid to co-host the Olympics.
The site is known by several names: Tongchang-ri, Dongchang-ri and Sohae. It was largely referred to as Sohae following talks with Trump, but in the latest statement Kim refers to it as Dongchang-ri.
«That confusion, I think, is by design,» Narang says. Using different names might convince some that North Korea is making an additional commitment.
