Trump praises rapport with Kim, hails dismantling of N Korea site

Praising his "good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, US President Donald Trump today welcomed reports that Pyongyang has started dismantling a facility seen as a testing ground for intercontinental ballistic missiles.

New satellite imagery shows "that North Korea has begun the process of dismantling a key missile site, and we appreciate that," Trump said at an event for military veterans in Kansas City, Missouri.

Hitting back at criticism that his June 12 summit with Kim in Singapore has so far yielded few concrete results, Trump suggested his newfound rapport with Kim was bearing fruit.

"We had a fantastic meeting with Chairman Kim and it seems to be going very well," Trump said.

After the summit, Trump had declared the North Korean nuclear threat was effectively over, but some US media reports suggest he has been privately furious at the pace of subsequent progress on the denuclearization issue.

US-based website 38 North published imagery Monday indicating Pyongyang has begun taking down a processing building and a rocket-engine test stand that had been used to test liquid-fuel engines at its Sohae Satellite Launching Station.

Sohae, on the northwest coast of North Korea, is ostensibly a facility designed for putting satellites into orbit, but rocket engines are easily repurposed for use in missiles and the international community has labelled Pyongyang's space programme a fig leaf for weapons tests.

38 North analyst Joseph Bermudez called the move an "important first step" for Kim in fulfilling a promise Trump said the North Korean leader had made.

But some experts urged caution and one US defence official played down the news, saying the Sohae site was not a priority in terms of monitoring the North's denuclearization efforts.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the imagery was "entirely consistent" with commitments Kim made to Trump during their summit in Singapore.

"We've been pressing for there to be inspectors on the ground when that engine test facility is dismantled, consistent with Chairman Kim's commitment," Pompeo said today at a news conference in California.

"They need to completely, fully denuclearize. That's the steps that Chairman Kim committed to and that the world has demanded," Pompeo added.

Yesterday, Trump told the Veterans of Foreign Wars group that he was hopeful the question of repatriating the remains of US troops killed during the Korean War would be addressed shortly.

The long-simmering topic was highlighted in a joint statement signed by Trump and Kim, with the US and North Korea committing to recovering remains, "including the immediate repatriation of those already identified." "At the very end of our meeting, I said to Chairman Kim - good relationship, good feeling - I said, 'I would really appreciate if you could do that'," Trump said.

"He said, 'It will be done.'"