NORTH KOREA IS PROTECTING ITS NUKE MISSILES: UN MONITORS

UNITED NATIONS: North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes remain intact and the country is working to make sure those capabilities cannot be destroyed by any military strikes, according to a confidential report by UN sanctions monitors.

The report to a 15-member UN Security Council sanctions committee, seen by Reuters, comes ahead of a second planned summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this month. They initially met in June 2018 and Kim pledged to work towards denuclearisation.

While Trump has hailed “tremendous progress” in his dealings with North Korea, the UN report found that Pyongyang “is using civilian facilities, including airports, for ballistic missile assembly and testing with the goal of effectively preventing decapitation strikes on a smaller number of identified nuclear and missile assembly and manufacturing sites”.

The report said it “found evidence of a consistent trend on the part of the DPRK to disperse its assembly, storage and testing locations”. The North Korean mission to the UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the 317-page report, which was submitted to Security Council members on Friday.

The UN Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, banning exports including coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, and capping imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.