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NKOREA-NUCLEAR-POLITICS LEAD
N. Korea still building at nuclear site: monitor
SEOUL, June 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – North Korea is carrying out rapid
improvements to its nuclear research facility, a monitor said on Wednesday,
despite declaring a commitment to denuclearisation of the peninsula at the
Singapore summit.
The nuclear-armed North’s leader Kim Jong Un promised to “work toward” the
goal at a landmark summit in the city-state earlier this month with US
President Donald Trump.
But the Singapore meeting failed to clearly define denuclearisation or
produce a specific timeline towards dismantling the North’s atomic weapons
arsenal.
Trump claimed the process would start quickly, saying last week that “it
will be a total denuclearisation, which is already taking place”.
But recent satellite imagery showed that not only were operations
continuing at present at the North’s main Yongbyon nuclear site, it was also
carrying out infrastructure works, said the respected 38 North website.
“Commercial satellite imagery from June 21 indicates that improvements to
the infrastructure at… Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center are
continuing at a rapid pace,” it said.
It noted “continued operations” at the North’s uranium enrichment plant and
several new installations at the site — including an engineering office and
a driveway to a building housing a nuclear reactor.
But continued operations at the site “should not be seen as having any
relationship with North Korea’s pledge to denuclearise”, it added.
Nuclear officials could be “expected to proceed with business as usual
until specific orders are issued from Pyongyang”, it said.
The North last month blew up its aged but only nuclear test site at
Punggye-ri — where it had staged six atomic tests — in a show of goodwill
before the summit.
But Pyongyang has kept its counsel on the denuclearisation issue since the
meeting, although state media have dialled down propaganda against the US,
long dubbed the “imperialist enemy”.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been pushing for more follow-up talks
to flesh out details over denuclearisation but no date has been set for when
they would take place.
Shortly after the summit with Kim, Trump declared that there was “no longer
a Nuclear Threat from North Korea”.
But highlighting the apparent gap between Trump’s rhetoric and the facts on
the ground, his administration on Friday extended decade-old sanctions
against Kim’s regime, citing the “extraordinary threat” from the North’s
nuclear arsenal.
Trump also ruffled feathers by abruptly announcing a halt to joint military
drills with the ally the South after the Singapore summit, calling the
exercises “provocative” to the North and “very expensive”.
It took the Pentagon several hours to confirm the surprise decision, and
the drills were only officially cancelled two weeks after the summit.
Now the US Defense Secretary James Mattis is set to visit Seoul on Thursday
to discuss the issue with his South Korean counterpart.
Mattis, currently on his first-ever trip to China, will fly to Japan after
visiting Seoul as part of his Asian tour.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1614 hrs