N Korea making more nuclear bomb fuel despite talks, thinks US intelligence

US intelligence agencies believe North Korea has increased production of fuel for nuclear weapons at multiple secret sites in recent months and may try to hide these while seeking concessions in nuclear talks with the United States, NBC news quoted US officials as saying.
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 U.S. 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.
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ALSO READ: Kim dumps denuclearisation? North Korea still upgrading nuclear site
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.
ALSO READ: US says will test North Korea's commitment with timeline of 'asks'
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 U.S. 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.
North Korea agreed at the summit to "work toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," but the joint statement signed by Kim and Trump gave no details on how or when Pyongyang might surrender its nuclear weapons.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week he would likely go back to North Korea before long to try to flesh out commitments made at the Trump-Kim meeting.
On Thursday, the Financial Times quoted US officials as saying that Pompeo plans to travel to North Korea next week, but the State Department has declined to confirm this.
Ahead of the summit, North Korea rejected unilaterally abandoning an arsenal it has called an essential deterrent against U.S. aggression.
ALSO READ: Despite summit with Kim, Trump says North Korea still a nuclear threat
Trump said last week North Korea was blowing up four of its big test sites and that a process of "total denuclearization ...
has already started," but officials said there had been no such evidence since the summit.
This week, Washington-based North Korean monitoring project 38 North said recent satellite imagery showed North Korea had made rapid improvements to facilities at Yongbyon since May 6, but it could not say if such work had continued after June 12.

North Korea's nuclear arsenal complete, Kim Jong-Un nixes missile tests

North Korea has achieved its goal of developing a nuclear arsenal and is suspending further tests of atomic weapons or intercontinental ballistic missiles, its state-run media reported, citing leader Kim Jong Un.
Kim said the nuclear test site in North Korea’s north will be closed, according to the Korean Central News Agency. Punggye-ri, built in a secluded mountain valley northeast of Pyongyang and the site for all six of the regime’s nuclear blasts, has already been in doubt amid signs of structural weakness, and some observers have said it would be unsafe to do more tests there.

“I solemnly declare that we have accomplished credible weaponization of nuclear forces,” Kim was quoted as saying at a Friday ruling party meeting. “Our decision to suspend nuclear tests is part of the world’s important steps for nuclear disarmament and our republic will join global efforts to completely suspend nuclear tests.”
The comments come ahead of his talks on April 27 with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and a possible summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in May or June. While Kim’s statement that he has achieved his desired deterrent is largely a reiteration of prior claims, the announcement of a plan to mothball the test site suggests he is seeking to further ease tensions ahead of those meetings.
Trump Response
A spokesman for Moon said the KCNA report was a positive sign for Friday’s talks, while Trump praised Kim’s statement in a tweet, calling it “very good news for North Korea and the World.”
ALSO READ: North Korea suspends nuclear, missile tests ahead of summit with South, US
“Big progress!” he added. “Look forward to our Summit.” In a later tweet he noted that North Korea would “shut down a nuclear test site in the country’s Northern Side to prove the vow to suspend nuclear tests.”
North Korea has already effectively halted weapons tests for about five months, after firing a missile on Nov. 29 believed to be capable of reaching any city in the U.S. After that launch, which prompted the most restrictive United Nations sanctions yet, Kim declared his regime’s decades-long quest for nuclear weapons “complete.”
Commercial satellite imagery of Punggye-ri from March 17 showed no evidence of tunneling operations or personnel or vehicles in key areas, according to the 38 North website, which monitors North Korea.
Tunnels at the site suffered cave-ins during and after each nuclear test, said Hong Tae-kyung, a professor of geophysics at Seoul’s Yonsei University.
“A fair amount of tunnels have collapsed and there’s even a possibility of radioactive leaks there,” said Hong. “Realistically, it’s highly unlikely they can be used for nuclear tests any more.”
If North Korea resumed nuclear testing at some point it would probably pick another site in the east, which is less populated and carries lower risk of contamination for Pyongyang, Hong added.
Shin Beomchul, a professor at the Korean National Diplomatic Academy, called Kim’s comments a “very carefully coordinated calculation to build hopes of the world that it’s open to changes that could possibly follow the summits.”
“It’s still hard to tell from the statement if it has genuine intent to denuclearize,” Shin said. “Contents-wise, there’s no real change in its position.”
Kim has long said he wants his country to be recognized as a nuclear power, but nations including South Korea and the U.S. want him to go beyond a freeze and dismantle his arsenal entirely. Any progress on that front is likely to be slow and fraught, and prior efforts involving Kim’s late father when he was leader collapsed in acrimony.
In a speech on Thursday, Moon warned that implementing any deal with North Korea would be challenging, even if he was optimistic about reaching an “in-principle” agreement.
“Realistically speaking, we’re just entering the threshold for a dialogue,” Moon said.
Still, the regime is feeling the economic squeeze of sanctions, including by neighbor and ally China. And Kim at the party meeting spoke of the need to prioritize economic development for his impoverished country, according to KCNA.
The North Korean leader has placed greater emphasis on economic development alongside his nuclear goals since taking power in 2011, a shift that could make any offers of financial assistance from the U.S. and its allies more appealing in negotiations. In 2013, Kim for the first time declared his goal of “simultaneously‘’ pushing forward economic development and his nuclear force.
Kim’s statement is a “major opportunity to bring the Korean Peninsula out of the Cold War shadows,” China’s state-run Global Times said in a commentary. “It is hoped that Washington will take real action to consolidate the upbeat atmosphere, which includes scrapping U.S.-South Korea joint military drills or considerably reducing the size and frequency of the drills at the very least.”
The U.S., South Korea and Japan should immediately lift sanctions on North Korea except for broader UN-agreed penalties, it said.
Japan though expressed some skepticism.
“We have made many promises with North Korea, we paid money on the condition that they would end a test facility and such,” Finance Minister Taro Aso told reporters in Washington. “But I remember that they just took our money.” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed Kim’s announcement but told reporters it won’t change how Japan should handle the regime, Kyodo News reported.
Two U.S. officials who asked not to be identified said there was no reason not to believe Kim’s pledge was genuine. U.S. pressure on the regime had changed the calculus for Kim, one official said.
“This is a very serious initiative, it fits right in with North Korean policy and what they’ve been saying for a while,” said Joel Wit, a senior fellow at the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies who was involved in North Korea talks from 1993 to 1995. “They’ve decided that this is the moment to shift gears and to focus on developing their economy, end of story.”
North Korea won’t give up its nuclear weapons without reciprocal steps from the U.S. and others, he added. “But this is another sign that they are serious.”

India imposes new restrictions on trade with North Korea, say govt sources

India on Wednesday imposed fresh restrictions on trade with North Korea in line with the restrictions imposed by the United Nations, Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said on Wednesday.
According to a notification of the DGFT in the commerce ministry, "supply, sale, transfer or export" of crude oil will be subjected to the restrictions imposed by the UN Security Council (UNSC).
The trade restrictions on helicopters have now also been extended to new or used vessels.
North Korea is facing sanctions for pursuing its nuclear programme from the UN and the US.
Certain curbs have also been imposed on export of industrial machinery, iron, steel and other metals, the notification said. New restrictions have been imposed on import of food and agricultural products, electrical equipment and stone, among others from North Korea.
In October last year, the DGFT had imposed restrictions on trade in condensates and natural gas liquids, refined petroleum products.
The bilateral trade between India and North Korea declined to USD 133.43 million in 2016-17 from USD 198.78 million in the previous financial year.

New UN sanctions an act of war, US will face the wrath: North Korea

The latest UN sanctions against North Korea are an act of war and tantamount to a complete economic blockade against it, North Korea’s foreign ministry said on Sunday, threatening to punish those who supported the measure.
The UN Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Friday for its recent intercontinental ballistic missile test, seeking to limit its access to refined petroleum products and crude oil and its earnings from workers abroad.
The UN resolution seeks to ban nearly 90 per cent of refined petroleum exports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and, in a last-minute change, demands the repatriation of North Koreans working abroad within 24 months, instead of 12 months as first proposed.

The US-drafted resolution also caps crude oil supplies to North Korea at 4 million barrels a year and commits the Council to further reductions if it were to conduct another nuclear test or launch another ICBM.
In a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency, North Korea’s foreign ministry said the United States was terrified by its nuclear force and was getting “more and more frenzied in the moves to impose the harshest-ever sanctions and pressure on our country”.
The new resolution was tantamount to a complete economic blockade of North Korea, the ministry said.
“We define this ‘sanctions resolution’ rigged up by the US and its followers as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of our Republic, as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and the region and categorically reject the ‘resolution’,” it said.
“There is no more fatal blunder than the miscalculation that the US and its followers could check by already worn-out ‘sanctions’ the victorious advance of our people who have brilliantly accomplished the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force”, the ministry said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on November 29 declared the nuclear force complete after the test of North Korea’s largest-ever ICBM test, which the country said puts all of the United States within range.
Kim told a meeting of members of the ruling Workers’ Party on Friday that the country “successfully realized the historic cause of completing the state nuclear force” despite “short supply in everything and manifold difficulties and ordeals owing to the despicable anti-DPRK moves of the enemies”.
North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
South Korea’s foreign ministry told Reuters it is aware of the North Korean statement on the new sanctions, again highlighting its position that they are a “grave warning by the international community that the region has no option but to immediately cease reckless provocations, and take the path of dialogue for denuclearization and peace”.
‘BALANCE OF FORCE’
The North Korean foreign ministry said its nuclear weapons were a self-defensive deterrence not in contradiction of international law.
“We will further consolidate our self-defensive nuclear deterrence aimed at fundamentally eradicating the US nuclear threats, blackmail and hostile moves by establishing the practical balance of force with the US,” it said.
“The US should not forget even a second the entity of the DPRK which rapidly emerged as a strategic state capable of posing a substantial nuclear threat to the US mainland,” it added.
North Korea said those who voted for the sanctions would face its wrath.
“Those countries that raised their hands in favour of this ‘sanctions resolution’ shall be held completely responsible for all the consequences to be caused by the ‘resolution’ and we will make sure for ever and ever that they pay heavy price for what they have done.”
The North’s old allies China and Russia both supported the latest UN sanctions.
Tension has been rising over North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, which it pursues in defiance of years of UN Security Council resolutions, with the bellicose rhetoric coming from both Pyongyang and the White House.
In November, North Korea demanded a halt to what it called “brutal sanctions”, saying a round imposed after its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on September 3 constituted genocide.
US diplomats have made clear they are seeking a diplomatic solution but proposed the new, tougher sanctions resolution to ratchet up pressure on North Korea’s leader.