KOREAN PENINSULA
NORTH KOREA is secretly building new missiles despite promising to disarm, according to US intelligence reports.
Satellite imagery suggests construction has been stepped up at a factory making missiles capable of reaching the American mainland.
It makes a mockery of Donald Trump’s boast in June after his historic summit with Kim Jong Un that North Korea is “no longer a nuclear threat”.
When they met in Singapore, the two leaders shook hands on a deal to “denuclearise” the Korean peninsula.
But satellite photos taken in recent weeks indicated work on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) was under way at the Sanumdong facility just north of the capital, Pyongyang.
Images have also showed ongoing operations at the regime’s uranium enrichment plant in Yongbyon, 60 miles further north. One image taken on July 7 shows a bright-red trailer in a loading area, identical to those used by North Korea in the past to transport ICBMs.
Analysts have matched satellite images with a 2017 propaganda video released by Kim Jong Un.
The video showing off Kim’s Hwasong-14 missile was in a hanger with 12 beams on one side and 22 skylights.
Using satellite photos, analysts identified the hanger building by comparing beams and skylights on the exterior.
A spokesperson for the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies, said: “The missile facility is not dead, by any stretch of the imagination. It’s active. We see shipping containers and vehicles coming and going. This is a facility where they build ICBMs and space launch vehicles.”
At the June summit with Kim, the US President said the process of “total denuclearisation . . . has already started”. However, more than a dozen of Mr Trump’s own spies has broken rank to warn that the President was being “deceived” by Kim as the regime quietly increased production in recent months while conducting diplomatic talks.
In Kim’s own carefully-worded pledge, he vaguely promised to “work toward” denuclearisation.
US intelligence agents say senior North Korean officials have discussed intentions to deceive Washington about the number of nuclear warheads and missiles they have, as well as the types and numbers of facilities.
Their strategy includes “asserting that they have fully denuclearised by declaring and disposing of 20 warheads while retaining dozens more”.
North Korean experts at the US Centre for Naval Analysis have said that the North Koreans never agreed to give up their nuclear programme. They insist that the survival of the regime and perpetuation of the Kim family rule are Kim’s guiding principles.
Satellite images at the Yongbyon uranium enrichment site showed work was expanding rapidly, with evidence of activity at the cooling units and of vehicles transporting materials. Reports suggest, “there’s no evidence they are decreasing stockpiles, or that they have stopped production.”
It follows accusations from Kim’s regime that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made “gangster-like” demands for denuclearisation.
THE Stoics remind us that there is really no such thing as an objectively good or bad occurrence. When a billionaire loses £1million in market fluctuations, it’s not the same as when you or I lose a million pounds. Criticism from your worst enemy is received differently than negative words from a spouse. If someone sends you an angry email but you never see it, did it actually happen? In other words, these situations require our participation, context, and categorisation in order to be “bad.”
