June 14, 2018 13:14
The missile test site North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promised U.S. President Donald Trump to destroy is a large-scale facility in Tongchang-ri, North Pyongan Province. The regime conducted a vital test of an engine for intercontinental ballistic missiles there last year.
"Kim promised Trump during their summit on Tuesday to dismantle this facility," a diplomatic source said. He said that Kim presented the offer as a kind of surprise card to Trump, who is known to like showy outcomes.
Trump immediately told the press about it after the summit. "It seems that Trump is giving priority to deterring the North from developing ICBM capabilities that threaten the U.S. mainland over the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of nuclear weapons," a pundit said.
"It's possible that Kim Jong-un, who is well aware of this, told Trump about his plan to dismantle the Tongchang-ri facility to make the U.S. president trust him."
The North conducted a combustion test for a new high-powered liquid-fuel engine at Tongchang-ri on March 18 last year and succeeded in test-launching a Hwasong-14 ICBM with that engine four months later. The Hwasong-14 reportedly has a range of 10,000 km, placing the western U.S. mainland within reach.
Trump reportedly only started taking an interest in the North Korean nuclear issue after the successful test-launch of the Hwasong-14.
"Kim Jong-un must have won a number of major concessions from Trump in other sectors in return for destroying such a major facility,'" the diplomatic source said.
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