N Korea carrying out modifications at nuclear facility
New satellite images show North Korea could be making improvements at a key nuclear research site despite Kim Jong Un’s promise to US President Donald Trump to draw down his nuclear arsenal.
An analysis of the images by 38 North, a prominent North Korea monitoring group, showed Pyongyang had made improvements to the infrastructure at the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, a facility used to produce weapons-grade fissile material, CNN reported.
The group’s conclusions are in marked contrast to Trump’s declaration that the North Korean regime no longer poses a nuclear threat.
The satellite images, captured on June 21, showed modifications to the site’s plutonium production reactor and the construction of several support facilities. The report said these long-planned upgrades were already underway before Kim and Trump met in Singapore on June 12.
South Korea’s unification ministry, contacted by CNN about 38 North’s analysis, said it “cannot confirm the report” and is “watching it closely”.
According to 38 North, the “continued work at the Yongbyon facility should not be seen as having any relationship to North Korea’s pledge to denuclearise”, but the images suggested Pyongyang is continuing with work to maintain its nuclear sites following the summit.
Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said the Yongbyon facility is “still an active site producing plutonium for North Korea”.
Trump said last week that Kim had agreed to begin “total denuclearisation” right away, but the document he signed with Kim in Singapore only reiterated North Korea’s earlier commitment to “work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”.
The new satellite images released on Wednesday appear to suggest that North Korea is in a “holding pattern as negotiators discuss the next steps in talks”, CNN reported.
“The summit pledge is important, but it was not a written agreement that laid out what the North Koreans have to do – that doesn’t exist right now, so I’m not surprised they are continuing to operate their facilities,” said Joel Wit, a director of 38 North.