U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that North Korea was blowing up four of its big test sites and that a process of “total denuclearisation... has already started,” but officials said there was no such evidence.
Mr. Trump said at a Cabinet meeting in the White House that ”They’ve stopped the sending of missiles, including ballistic missiles. They’re destroying their engine site. They’re blowing it up. They’ve already blown up one of their big test sites, in fact its actually four of their big test sites.
“And the big thing is it will be a total denuclearisation, which has already started taking place.”
It was not immediately clear which North Korean test sites Mr. Trump was referring to and U.S. officials familiar with current intelligence on North Korea’s nuclear and missile test sites said there was no evidence of new moves to dismantle any sites since Mr. Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12.
The officials speculated that Mr. Trump might have been referring to explosions last month that North Korea said were to destroy tunnels at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site and the dismantling of a medium-range ballistic missile test stand at Iha-ri, also in May.
There had been contact with North Korean officials since the summit, the U.S. State Department said.
