North Korea working on new missiles

Intel suggests work is underway on 1 or 2 ICBMs

Washington, July 31: US spy agencies suspect that North Korea is building new missiles in the same research facility that manufactured the country’s ballistic missiles capable of reaching America, according to a report in the Washington Post which cited intelligence officials sharing classified report on condition of anonymity.

The officials said new evidence, including satellite photos taken in recent weeks, suggests that work is underway on at least one and possibly two liquidfueled intercontinental ballistic missiles at a research facility in Sanumdong on the outskirts of Pyongyang.

The report casts further doubt on President Donald Trump’s claims of victory last month in disarmament talks with North Korea. After Mr Trump met with North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong Un in a highprofile summit, the US President declared on Twitter, “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Tuesday played down the significance of the Post report.

“It suggests that this is a process. Things don’t change overnight,” she said of US efforts to denuclearise North Korea.

Mr Trump asserted last week that his administration’s plan to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear weapons is “going very well.”

But his comment seemed at odds with his own secretary of state Mike Pompeo who said any such step would have to be confirmed by international inspectors and that North Korea continued to produce fuel for nuclear weapons despite Mr Kim’s pledge to denuclearise.

Washington, July 31: US intelligence agencies have found that North Korea is building new missiles, based on satellite photographs taken in recent weeks and other new evidence, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

Just weeks after a highstakes summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang appears to be developing at least one or two liquid- fuelled intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Post said, citing officials familiar with the intelligence.

The factory outside Pyongyang in Sanumdong where the work is underway produced the North Korea’s first ICBMs capable of reaching the United States.

Following the Singapore summit in June, Trump had declared that Pyongyang was “no longer a Nuclear Threat,” and touted his own diplomatic achievements.

But Kim did not publicly promise to end work at the country’s nuclear and missile facilities, instead speaking of eventual denuclearisation.

The reported new missile construction follows Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s testimony last week in which he told senators Pyongyang continues to make nuclear fissile material, without indicating whether the hermit state was building new missiles.

Imagery from the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency suggests ongoing work on at least one Hwasong- 15 ICBM at the Sanumdong plant, the Post said. “We see them going to work, just as before,” a US official told the newspaper.

But at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station on North Korea’s west coast, workers can be seen dismantling an engine test stand, in line with a promise made to Trump at the summit, though the move is seen as more symbolic since the facility can easily be rebuilt.

An image taken on July 7 shows a bright- red covered trailer in a loading area that appears to be identical to those vehicles the North has previously used to transport ICBMs.