US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that North Korea was blowing up four of its big nuclear test sites and that a process of “total denuclearization” has already started. However, officials say that there’s no evidence of this happening, Reuters reports.
At a cabinet meeting, Trump said: “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 it’s actually four of their big test sites.”
US officials familiar with the issue have said that there’s no evidence of new moves to dismantle nuclear test sites in North Korea since the Trump-Kim meeting on June 12. They added that Trump may 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.
Asked on Wednesday if North Korea had done anything toward denuclearization since the summit, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters: “No, I’m not aware of that … obviously, it’s the very front end of a process. The detailed negotiations have not begun. I wouldn’t expect that at this point.”