Vincent Obia
by US spy agencies that North Korea might be building more Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) capable of reaching the United States, there is serious uncertainty about the achievability of the denuclearisation goal within the context of the US/North Korea bilateral talks.
Quoting senior U.S. officials, The Washington Post reported on Monday that satellite pictures and infrared imaging had indicated renewed work at the Sanumdong missile assembly facility south of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang. The report said this was the facility that produced North Korea’s first ICBM and “space-launch vehicles.”
The images taken in recent weeks was said to indicate that, at least, one or two liquid-fuelled missiles were being built.
“We see them going to work, just as before,” the Post quoted one senior official as saying on condition of anonymity.
Reuters quoted another U.S. official as saying that it was uncertain how far the likely missile construction had gone. But the images reportedly captured regular movement of supply trucks and other vehicles around the missile facility.
The satellite images were analysed by nuclear scientists at Middlebury Institute, California. Octave Lepinard, from the institute, was quoted as saying they saw increased activity, but there was nothing concrete to prove resumption of production there. He said they knew ICBMs had previously been constructed and stored at the facility and in the new images, they saw shipping containers and vehicles moving in and out and new buildings being constructed close to the facility.
“The unusual aspect of the images that we have seen recently is particularly the shipping containers that we saw on July 7 we believe to be transporting some of their ICBMs,” said Lepinard.
Experts, however, say North Korea may not be breaching any agreements, as no concrete agreement or detailed denuclearisation plan was decided at the Singapore summit in June. The Trump administration appeared to be more interested in establishing trust with the North Koreans, first, before advancing along the line of denuclearisation.