Experts Are Underwhelmed By North Korea’s Promise To Dismantle Missile Site

North Korea announced today that it will permanently close a major missile test site. Kim Jong Un, the North’s leader, said the site would be dismantled in the presence of international inspectors.

But experts who have been watching the site say the gesture will do virtually nothing to hamper the North’s missile and nuclear weapons capabilities. Instead, they say, the move represents the latest in the North’s piecemeal disarmament on its own terms. In May, North Korea demolished entrances to its underground nuclear test site, without the presence of inspectors.

Closing this missile site “may not be completely cost-free, but in the grand scheme of things it’s not a particularly big step towards disarmament,” says Vipin Narang, an arms control researcher at MIT who follows the North’s program.