US intelligence believes that North Korea is making more nuclear bomb fuel
Kim Jong Un’s commitments to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula are again in question after a report revealed that U.S. intelligence suspect that nuclear fuel production is being boosted at secret sites in NK.
NBC news quoted US officials as saying that North Korea had increased production of fuel for the making of nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites in recent months, despite repeated assurances to the U.S., South Korea and China that they are committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The officials also believe that Kim Jong Un may try to hide those facilities as he seeks more concessions in nuclear talks with the Trump administration.
The Telegraph reports: In a report on Friday, the network said what it described as the latest US intelligence assessment appeared to go counter to sentiments expressed by President Donald Trump, who tweeted after an unprecedented June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that “there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.”
NBC quoted five unidentified US officials as saying that in recent months North Korea had stepped up production of enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, even as it engaged in diplomacy with the United States.
The network cited US officials as saying that the intelligence assessment concludes that North Korea has more than one secret nuclear site in addition to its known nuclear fuel production facility at Yongbyon.
“There is absolutely unequivocal evidence that they are trying to deceive the US,” NBC quoted one official as saying.
The CIA declined to comment on the NBC report. The State Department said it could not confirm it and did not comment on matters of intelligence. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The NBC report raises further questions about North Korea’s readiness to enter serious negotiations about giving up a weapons program that now threatens the United States, in spite of Trump’s enthusiastic portrayal of the summit outcome.
NBC quoted one senior U.S. intelligence official as saying that North Korea’s decision ahead of the summit to suspend nuclear and missile tests was unexpected and the fact that the two sides were talking was a positive step.
However, he added: “Work is ongoing to deceive us on the number of facilities, the number of weapons, the number of missiles … We are watching closely.”
Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at California’s Middlebury Institute of International Studies, said there were two “bombshells” in the NBC report.
He said it had long been understood that North Korea had at least one undeclared facility to enrich nuclear fuel aside from Yongbyon.
“This assessment says there is more than one secret site. That means there are at least three, if not more sites,” he said.
Lewis said the report also implied that US intelligence had reporting to suggest North Korea did not intend to disclose one or more of the enrichment sites.
“Together, these two things would imply that North Korea intended to disclose some sites as part of the denuclearization process, while retaining others,” he said.
Niamh Harris