Agencies
Washington: US President Donald Trump said that he would be “very disappointed” if reports on North Korea restoring parts of nuclear missile site is confirmed to be true. The Hill quoted the US President, addressing the media at the White House, as saying, ‘I would be very, very disappointed in Chairman Kim.”
“I don’t think I will be, but we’ll see what happens,” Trump added. The statement by the US President has come after South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) on Tuesday informed that North Korea has been restoring part of the Dongchang-ri nuclear missile launch site in Yongbyon, located north of Pyongyang.
The 5-megawatt graphite-moderated reactor, capable of yielding five to seven kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium annually, was dismantled late last year, with no signs of reprocessing activities there anymore.
Trump did not confirm or deny the reports, however, asserted that it may prove to be a hurdle once again in reaching a peace agreement with North Korea. At the same time, the US President seemed confident in reiterating that Washington would soon reach an agreement with Pyongyang.“We’ll take a look. It will ultimately get solved,” Trump said.
Denuclearisation of the entire Korean peninsula has always been a contentious issue during talks between the US and North Korea.During the recent summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which took place in Hanoi last month, both the leaders walked out of the meeting without striking a deal.
According to reports, both the leaders showed disagreement over the steps Pyongyang must take to rid of nuclear weapons.Previously, both the countries had reached an impasse regarding sanctions relief for Pyongyang soon after the first Summit in June 2018, leading to extremely slow progress on the denuclearisation front.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
