US President signals readiness to renegotiate with North Korea

"It's very clear that the president is willing to renegotiate. We'll see when negotiations are scheduled or how they're conducted," US National Security Adviser John Bolton said in an interview withFox NewsMarch 7

Bolton said it was too early to confirm reports that North Korea had resumed operations at the Sohae missile launch site (also known as Tongchang-ri). "We have a lot of ways to get information. We'll study the situation carefully. As the president said, it would be very, very disappointing if they went in this direction," Bolton said.

The US State Department also said Washington was ready to conduct constructive dialogue with Pyongyang, but did not specify whether the US had contacted North Korea to verify information about the Sohae launch site being operational again.

Based on satellite imagery analysis, 38 North, a Washington-based North Korea monitoring project, said on March 7 that Pyongyang’s rapid rebuilding of a launch pad and activity at other sites suggested Sohae appeared to have returned to normal operations. The launch pad structure was built between February 16 and March 2.

After the first US-North Korea summit in Singapore in June 2018, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promised to destroy a key missile engine testing site. He did not elaborate, but US officials believe it was the Sohae satellite launch site.

Mr Kim also pledged at a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in last September to close Sohae and allow international experts to observe the destruction of the facility.

However, days after the second US-North Korea summit ended without an agreement, South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it had discovered that North Korea had partially reinstalled a roof and door at the facility. The NIS also told lawmakers that uranium enrichment facilities at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex were operating normally, even before the US-North Korea summit in Hanoi.