United Nations agency: North Korea is not reducing nukes

WASHINGTON – Two months after President Donald Trump endorsed North Korea’s pledge to denuclearize, a United Nations watchdog organization says there is no sign that Kim Jong Un’s government has stopped its nuclear weapons activities.

A report from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency says “the continuation and further development” of North Korea’s nuclear program is “cause for grave concern,” according to news reports.

During a highly publicized summit June 12 in Singapore, Trump and Kim signed an agreement in which North Korea promised to terminate its nuclear weapons programs. Trump has frequently defended the agreement in the months since, and says he is likely to meet with Kim again soon.

“I stopped (North Korea’s) nuclear testing,” Trump told Reuters in an interview Monday. “I stopped (North Korea’s) missile testing. Japan is thrilled. What’s going to happen? Who knows? We’re going to see.”

Foreign policy analysts called the Trump-Kim agreement general at best. They pointed out that North Korea did not provide an inventory of its nuclear weapons programs, nor did it offer any system to verify any dismantling of those programs – points that the U.N. agency also made.

In its report, the IAEA said it “remains unable to carry out verification activities” in North Korea, and “as further nuclear activities take place in the country, this knowledge is declining.”

The report is scheduled to be submitted to an IAEA board meeting in September, the AFP news agency reported. Critics hopped on the report to argue that Trump’s agreement with North Korea is a sham.

“Trump’s North Korea policy is a failure,” tweeted Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.