North Korea ‘expanding key missile factory’

NORTH Korea is completing a major expansion of a key missile-manufacturing plant, according to satellite photographs that cast fresh doubt on Pyongyang’s commitment to disarm.

The facility makes solid-fuel, ballistic missiles – capable of a swift nuclear strike on Asian targets – and re-entry vehicles for warheads, believed to be one of the last major technological hurdles in developing missiles capable of hitting the continental US.

According to The Wall Street Journal, images analysed by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California, show North Korea was finishing construction on the plant exterior last month, when Kim Jong-un was holding a meeting with Donald Trump in Singapore on June 12, a summit that ended with a vaguely worded commitment to “complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula” but with no specified timeline or means for verification.

38 North, a monitoring organisation, last week published satellite images showing the nuclear research centre in Yongbyon being upgraded “at a rapid pace.” On Monday, The Diplomat website reported North Korea had continued to produce support equipment and launchers for one of its newer mediumrange ballistic missiles this year.