Despite continuing talks and negotiations with multiple parties over its denuclearization and missile programs, it has bene reported that construction is being carried out by North Korea at the factory where the rouge nation’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the US was manufactured.
According to media reports quoting US official sources, infrared images of vehicles that were moving in and out of the facility at Sanumdong were captured by US spy satellites. The photos however could not confirm how advanced any missile construction might be, said the media reports.
According to a report in the Washington Post, the big research facility on the outskirts of Pyongyang was the place where apparently one or two new liquid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missiles were being apparently build by North Korea.
News reports stated US officials as saying that the intelligence photos showed a truck and covered trailer that are striking similar to the ones that are used by the country to transport ICBMs. However, it was not possible to ascertain what was being carried – if anything at all, because they were covered.
No comment on the reports was made by the White House.
These evidences that have been obtained by US intelligence this month are the latest one against North Korea to suggest that the country is continuing with its missile programs despite negotiations with the US and the meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“It reflects an important fact: despite what US officials have been saying, North Korea didn’t commit to much of anything on denuclearization”, said Mintaro Oba, a former US diplomat who worked on North Korea policy.
“It’s not surprising that North Korea would want to proceed with elements of their nuclear and missile programs until a real deal is reached. They’re not just going to stop because we had a summit.”
Soon afterwards, it was declared by Trump that nuclear threat was no longer posed by North Korea. Despite a commitment by Kim in the summit statement of working towards denuclearization, no details about how that would be achieved have been offered by Pyongyang.
This is however not the first time that evidence obtained by US intelligence contradicted the optimism of the US president.
Fuel for its nuclear weapons was is being continued to be produced by North Korea despite its promise of denuclearization, said the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the US Senate foreign relations committee last week. he however insisted that progress in eth negotiations with Pyongyang was being made by the Trump administration.
Till such time that “the ink is dry on an agreement” it would not be realistic to expect Norht Korea to bring an end to he program, said Joel Wit, a former State Department negotiator and founder of 38 North, a North Korea monitoring project.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
According to media reports quoting US official sources, infrared images of vehicles that were moving in and out of the facility at Sanumdong were captured by US spy satellites. The photos however could not confirm how advanced any missile construction might be, said the media reports.
According to a report in the Washington Post, the big research facility on the outskirts of Pyongyang was the place where apparently one or two new liquid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missiles were being apparently build by North Korea.
News reports stated US officials as saying that the intelligence photos showed a truck and covered trailer that are striking similar to the ones that are used by the country to transport ICBMs. However, it was not possible to ascertain what was being carried – if anything at all, because they were covered.
No comment on the reports was made by the White House.
These evidences that have been obtained by US intelligence this month are the latest one against North Korea to suggest that the country is continuing with its missile programs despite negotiations with the US and the meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“It reflects an important fact: despite what US officials have been saying, North Korea didn’t commit to much of anything on denuclearization”, said Mintaro Oba, a former US diplomat who worked on North Korea policy.
“It’s not surprising that North Korea would want to proceed with elements of their nuclear and missile programs until a real deal is reached. They’re not just going to stop because we had a summit.”
Soon afterwards, it was declared by Trump that nuclear threat was no longer posed by North Korea. Despite a commitment by Kim in the summit statement of working towards denuclearization, no details about how that would be achieved have been offered by Pyongyang.
This is however not the first time that evidence obtained by US intelligence contradicted the optimism of the US president.
Fuel for its nuclear weapons was is being continued to be produced by North Korea despite its promise of denuclearization, said the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the US Senate foreign relations committee last week. he however insisted that progress in eth negotiations with Pyongyang was being made by the Trump administration.
Till such time that “the ink is dry on an agreement” it would not be realistic to expect Norht Korea to bring an end to he program, said Joel Wit, a former State Department negotiator and founder of 38 North, a North Korea monitoring project.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
