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North Korea appears to have been dismantling key facilities at a rocket-engine test center, a group of experts said on Tuesday, Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump said.
According to the 38 North group, commercial satellite imagery of the Sohae satellite launching station indicates Pyongyang has been used to test liquidity space launch vehicles.
Sohae, on the northwest coast of North Korea,
But rocket engines are easily repurposed for use in missiles and outside observers say nuclear-armed Pyongyang's space program is a fig leaf for weapons tests.
38 North badyst Joseph Bermudez called the move an "important first step" for Kim in fulfilling commitments he made to Trump during their June summit in Singapore.
Since Sohae is "believed to have played an important role in the development North American intercontinental ballistic missile program, these efforts represent a significant confidence-building measure on the part of North Korea, "Bermudez said.
A US official defense, however, told AFP that the Pentagon was not closely tracking at Sohae in terms of how it relates to the denuclearization of North Korea.
"It's not on the radar, so to speak," the official said.
ALSO READ: US struggling to convert North Korea promises to progress: Experts
Earlier, Trump said he was "very "With North Korea, I have been in touch with North Korea, and I have not seen it before."
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