https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/31/us-intel-detects-new-north-korean-icmb-activity/
U.S. intel detects new North Korean ICMB activity
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In this July 4, 2017, file photo distributed by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, second from right, inspects the preparation of the launch of a Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in North Korea’s northwest. Recent media ... more >
By Guy Taylor - The Washington Times - Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Satellite imagery captured by U.S. intelligence shows North Korea has engaged in a flurry of new activity at a intercontinental ballistic missile factory during recent weeks, according to reports Tuesday citing American officials familiar with the intelligence.
A former CIA official specializing in the region said that if North Korea is building new ICBMs, it would not technically violate last month’s joint denuclearization statement between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, but would damage the spirit of ongoing talks with Pyongyang.
“That North Korea is building more ICBMs shouldn’t come as a surprise,” said Bruce Klingner, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington and former CIA Korea deputy division chief.
U.S. spy satellite photos and infrared imaging have shown vehicles moving in and out of a North Korea facility that previously produced the country’s first ICBMs capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, one senior U.S. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity Tuesday.
The imagery reportedly does not show how advanced any new ICBM construction may be, but was collected during weeks subsequent to the June 12 Trump-Kim summit in Singapore, where the two signed a statement in which North Korea broadly committed to the goal of giving up its nuclear weapons programs.
U.S. intelligence has for years warned that Pyongyang, which has previously threatened to attack America and its allies, was developing nuclear warheads small enough to fit atop an ICBM capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.
The Washington Post first reported Monday night that U.S. officials had obtained new evidence, including the satellite photos, showing work underway in North Korea on at least one and possibly two liquid-fueled ICBMs at a research facility in Sanumdong, on the outskirts of Pyongyang.
Citing anonymous officials familiar with the intelligence, The Post report said the new information does not suggest an expansion of North Korea’s capabilities, but shows that work on advanced weapons is continuing weeks after Mr. Trump declared on Twitter that Pyongyang was “no longer a Nuclear Threat.”
Mr. Klingner sought to downplay hype around the report Tuesday, asserting that the “North Korean activity is not per se a violation of the Singapore Communique, since no real deal was reached” between Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim during their historic summit last month.
At the same time, however, the former CIA official suggested the new intelligence likely won’t bode well for the future of talks with the North Koreans.
In comments emailed to reporters by the Heritage Foundation, Mr. Klingner said Pyongyang’s actions “run counter to the spirit of the summit and are inconsistent with a government preparing to abandon its nuclear programs.”
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http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2018-07-31/doc-ihhacrce3192523.shtml
美媒称朝鲜正在制造新洲际导弹 中方：不掌握情况
2018年07月31日 16:18 环球网
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原标题：美媒称朝鲜正在制造新导弹 中方：不掌握情况
[环球时报-环球网报道 记者郭芳]有美国媒体报道称，美国情报机构侦测到朝鲜正在一家工厂制造新型导弹的迹象。在31日的例行记者会上，有记者问中方是否掌握类似信息？对此，外交部发言人耿爽表示不掌握这一情况。
美媒援引匿名官员的话说，最近的证据，包括最近几周拍摄的卫星照片表明，在平壤郊区的一个大型研究机构内有至少一枚，或可能两枚液体燃料洲际弹道导弹正在制造中。
在回答有关提问时，耿爽说，中方在半岛问题上的立场是一贯的、明确的，也是众所周知的。他想强调的是，近来半岛局势呈现趋稳向好的势头，中方希望有关各方能够共同努力，维护这一势头。“我们特别希望美朝双方能够落实双方领导人会晤的共识，继续相向而行，为实现半岛无核化和政治解决半岛问题发挥应有的作用。”
US media said North Korea is making new intercontinental missiles.
July 31, 2018 16:18 Global Network
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Original title: US media said that North Korea is making new missiles.
[Global Times - Global Network Reporter Guo Fang] A US media report said that US intelligence agencies have detected signs that North Korea is manufacturing a new type of missile at a factory. At the regular press conference on the 31st, a reporter asked if China has similar information. In response, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yan Shuang said that he did not grasp this situation.
The US media quoted anonymous officials as saying that recent evidence, including satellite photographs taken in recent weeks, indicates that at least one, or possibly two, liquid fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles are being built in a large research facility on the outskirts of Pyongyang.
When answering the relevant questions, Yan Shuang said that China’s position on the peninsula is consistent, clear and well known. What he wants to emphasize is that the situation on the peninsula has recently stabilized and the momentum is good. China hopes that all parties concerned can work together to maintain this momentum. "We especially hope that the United States and the DPRK can implement the consensus of the leaders' meetings and continue to move in the same direction and play their due role in realizing the denuclearization of the peninsula and the political settlement of the peninsula."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...uclearize-despite-gangster-insult-Pompeo.html
Trump insists Kim Jong-un 'will honor' promise to denuclearize despite blasting 'gangster-like demand' and says China might be pulling the strings as leverage on trade
- The U.S. president said he expects Kim to stand by a loose accord they signed nearly a month ago in Singapore
- Agreement committed North Korea to taking steps to completely denuclearize
- Talks hit a roadblock this week in Pyongyang during a visit of the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
- North Korea accused him of adopting a gangster-like approach to talks
- Pompeo rejected the characterization and Trump suggested that China's Xi Jinping had been in Kim's ear
Published: 16:56 BST, 9 July 2018 | Updated: 00:18 BST, 10 July 2018
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President Donald Trump insisted Monday that Kim Jong-un would follow through on a pledge to denuclearize in spite of North Korea's complaints that the U.S. secretary of state acted like a 'gangster' during a trip last week to Pyongyang.
Trump said he expects Kim to stand by a loose accord they signed nearly a month ago in Singapore that committed North Korea to taking steps to denuclearize. And he pinpointed China as the potential disrupter in he and Kim's newly-formed relationship.
'I have confidence that Kim Jong Un will honor the contract we signed &, even more importantly, our handshake,' he tweeted. 'We agreed to the denuclearization of North Korea. China, on the other hand, may be exerting negative pressure on a deal because of our posture on Chinese Trade-Hope Not!'
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President Donald Trump insisted Monday that Kim Jong-un would follow through on a pledge to denuclearize in spite of North Korea's complaints that the U.S. secretary of state had acted like a 'gangster' during a trip last week to Pyongyang
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Trump said he expects Kim to stand by a loose accord they signed nearly a month ago in Singapore that committed North Korea to taking steps to denuclearize. And he pinpointed China as the potential disrupter in he and Kim's newly-formed relationship
Since Kim's talk with Trump, the 33-year-old dictator has sat with his regime's closest ally, fellow authoritarian and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The meeting corresponds with foot-dragging from the North Korean dictator to follow through on a pledge to end his nuclear program.
North Korea has not tested rockets or missiles for months amid talks with the U.S. that would ultimately lead to economic relief if a formal pact is made and kept.
But it said after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's most recent visit that it was discouraged by a return to conversations on what it described as 'worrisome' on 'cancerous' issues related to complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.
Pompeo had a radically different interpretation of the outcome of the Pyongyang talks, where he was denied an audience with Kim.
He claimed in Tokyo that a 'substantive' discussion had taken place and that the reference to the 'gangster-like mindset' with which he approached the talks in North Korean press was nothing more than 'stray comments'.
'If I paid attention to what the press said, I'd go nuts,' he said. 'I am determined to achieve the commitment that President Trump made, and I'm counting on chairman Kim to be determined to follow through on the commitment that he made.'
Media traveling with Pompeo did not pan the trip favorably. But it was state-run agency KCNA that said the regime was chagrined about Pompeo's allegedly bullying.
'We expected the US to bring constructive measures to build confidence in accordance with the spirit of the US-NK Summit,' KCNA reported.
Pompeo defended his stance on Sundy, saying the U.S. position on disarmament is shared by the United Nations Security Council.
'If those requests were gangster-like, the world is a gangster,' Pompeo responded.
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President Trump said last week as Pompeo made his way to Pyongyang that he had a 'very good feeling' about Kim from the moment that they met, bringing up the handshake they shared at the top of their summit.
'I had a very good feeling about him from the standpoint – I shook his hand,' he told reporters traveling with him Thursday on Air Force One. 'I think we understand each other. I really believe that he sees a different future for North Korea.'
Trump pointed out in the remarks that Kim had not tested missiles or rockets for eight months while claiming that his predecessor, Barack Obama, nearly went to war with North Korea.
'You can ask President Obama, he was very close to going to war and he would have lost 50 million people,' he claimed. 'The rhetoric was very strong.'
Should Kim make an about-face, Trump warned, 'We’ll go back to the other way.'
He was seemingly referring to an expansion of his maximum pressure campaign and the hurling of insults at Kim, whom he referred to in a U.N. speech as 'rocket man,' prior their Singapore summit.
The president was demure when asked about a report that Kim is looking to deceive the U.S. about the size of its nuclear stockpile, however.
'We’ll see. We’ll see,' he said. 'All I can tell you is this. You haven’t had one missile launch and you haven’t had one rocket launch.'
Trump spoke to reporters en route to a political rally in Montana. Pompeo was traveling to North Korea at the same time in search of a firm agreement with Pyongyang to completely and verifiably denuclearize and end its ballistic missile production.
Kim's government has taken no major steps since the summit with the U.S. president in Singapore last month to fulfill a pledge to disarm.
Instead, satellite imagery has shown the rogue nation expanding a ballistic missiles site. A Washington Post report, citing U.S. intelligence officials, also claimed an effort was underway by Pyongyang to conceal its nuclear sites and and some of its warheads from the United States.
President Trump had slapped down the Post report as nonsense on Tuesday, based on its anonymous sourcing. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders declined to comment on sensitive information that comes from U.S. intelligence reports.
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went to North Korea last week in search of a firm agreement with Pyongyang to completely and verifiably denuclearize and
