N Korea nukes con

Satellites show new missiles being rolled out north of capital

NORTH Korea is secretly building new missiles despite promising to disarm, according to US intelligence sources.

Satellite imagery suggests construction has been stepped up at a factory making missiles capable of reaching the United States.

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 yesterday the Washington Post said satellite photos taken in recent weeks indicated work on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) was under way at the Sanumdong facility north of Pyongyang.

Last month, images showed ongoing operations at the regime’s uranium enrichment plant in Yongbyon, 96km 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.

US analysts matched satellite photos with a 2017 propaganda video released by Kim Jong-un. The video showing off Kim’s Hwasong-14 missile was in a hangar with 12 beams on one side and 22 skylights.

Using satellite photos, analysts identified the hangar building by comparing beams and skylights on the exterior.

Jeffrey Lewis, of 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 have broken ranks to warn that the President was being deceived.