(Photo Credit: Shealah Craighead/The White House)
Their offer to shutter Yongbyon didn’t come until after the president ended his talks with Kim Jong-un.
We now have a much different view of what happened behind closed doors during the Hanoi summit between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un that ultimately led to its abrupt ending. Continue reading
U.S. national security adviser John Bolton
Satellite imagery acquired on March 2 shows that North Korea is rebuilding the long-range rocket site at Sohae (Tongchang-ri) which in the past was used to launch satellites with ICBM technology that is banned under UN Security Council resolutions.
“Activity is evident at the vertical engine test stand and the launch pad’s rail-mounted rocket transfer structure,” according to the Beyond Parallel website. “This facility had been dormant since August 2018, indicating the current activity is deliberate and purposeful.” Continue reading
North Korea expands key missile base 02:06
Washington (CNN) New satellite images obtained exclusively by CNN reveal North Korea has significantly expanded a key long-range missile base located in the mountainous interior of the country, offering yet another reminder that diplomatic talks with the US have done little to prevent Kim Jong Un from pursuing his promise to mass produce and deploy the existing types of nuclear warheads in his arsenal.
The satellite imagery offers evidence that the Yeongjeo-dong missile base and a nearby, previously unreported site remain active and have been continuously upgraded, underscoring the reality of just how far apart Washington and Pyongyang are on the issue of denuclearization despite five months of sporadic talks.
While the base at Yeongjeo-dong has long been known to US intelligence agencies and analysts, researchers at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey told CNN that the images reveal construction on a new facility just seven miles away from the older site that had not been previously publicly identified. Continue reading
SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected a test of a newly developed high-tech weapon, the North’s state media reported Friday.
The Korean Central Broadcasting Station said that Kim visited a testing site at a national defense institute and inspected the test of the unspecified new tactical weapon. Continue reading
Instead of North Korea coming to terms with the Western world, it’s the Western world that’s being absorbed into China’s sphere of influence in Asia. The Western plan in its current state seems to be backfiring.
A South Korean soldier stands guard before the military demarcation line and North Korea’s Panmun Hall. (ED JONES/AFP/Getty Images)
‘These disagreements have brought thorny issues over the shape and size of the U.S.-South Korea alliance back to the surface.’
The United States and South Korea are increasingly at odds over North Korea, placing the future of their military alliance in doubt.
Early last month, South Korea opened a liaison office with North Korea despite U.S. opposition to the move. Shortly after, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha publicly criticized the U.S. for its inflexibility regarding an action of good faith that North Korea had asked of the U.S. Also in September, South Korea announced that it might remove a certain set of sanctions on the North, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to say the South does “nothing without our approval,” a statement that irritated many South Koreans. Continue reading
(Photo Credit: The White House)
The North Korean leader also expresses ‘unwavering faith’ in President Trump.
Proclaiming his ‘unwavering faith’ in President Donald Trump, North Korean dictator Chairman Kim Jong-un has set the date for a third meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, as well as a timeline for denuclearization. Continue reading
According to a Pentagon report, China fears North Korea’s provocative nuclear and missile tests will set off a regional conflict. Beijing wants stability, a denuclearized peninsula and no U.S. forces near its borders. (Associated Press)
The Pentagon’s latest annual report on China’s military for the first time reveals contingency plans by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to intervene in North Korea.
Relations between the two communist nations remain strained and last year were at the lowest level in decades.
According to the report, China fears North Korea’s provocative nuclear and missile tests will set off a regional conflict. Beijing wants stability, a denuclearized peninsula and no U.S. forces near its borders.
“China’s priority is maintaining stability on the Korean peninsula, which includes preventing a [North Korean] collapse and preventing a military conflict on the peninsula,” the report said. Continue reading
Satellite imagery from August 3 indicates additional dismantlement activities are ongoing at the Sohae launch facility. Photo: 38 North
Satellite images suggest work is continuing to demolish Sohae facilities, but analysts suggest it may want to keep other parts of its arsenal intact for now
North Korea appears to have taken another step towards dismantling its fixed missile launching facilities after the US stepped up the pressure to disarm, but so far it appears to have left other facilities and its nuclear warheads intact.
The hermit state appears to be continuing to take down its key intercontinental ballistic missile facilities (ICBM) at Sohae, located at about 200km (120 miles) northwest of the capital Pyongyang, according to the North Korea monitoring group 38 North on late Tuesday. Continue reading
President Donald Trump said Tuesday night July 31: “I have a feeling they’ll be talking to us pretty soon. And maybe not, and that’s OK too.” He sounded exactly as he did before meeting Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 7. Israel, caught by surprise, reported an assurance from “a senior US official” that “there is no change in the tough policy against Iran.” Continue reading
© Planet/James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International… A May 28 satellite image of a building that U.S. analysts believe is a secret uranium enrichment facility near North Korea’s capital.
U.S. spy agencies are seeing signs that North Korea is constructing new missiles at a factory that produced the country’s first intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the United States, according to officials familiar with the intelligence.
Newly obtained evidence, including satellite photos taken in recent weeks, indicates that work is underway on at least one and possibly two liquid-fueled ICBMs at a large research facility in Sanumdong, on the outskirts of Pyongyang, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe classified intelligence. Continue reading
President Donald Trump said during a Monday joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte that he would meet with the leaders of Iran with “no preconditions.”
A Reuters reporter asked Trump if he would meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a similar way he met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladamir Putin. Continue reading
This satellite image courtesy of Airbus Defense and Space and 38 North dated July 22, 2018 shows the apparent dismantling of facilities at the Sohae satellite launch site in North Korea. Photo: AFP/ PlÈiades © Cnes 2018, Distribution Airbus DS / Handout
While credibility of denuclearization has still not been established, new moves signal possible North Korean acceptance of US position linking satellites and missile programs
North Korea is dismantling a satellite-launch and rocket-engine test site in a move that seems aimed at boosting confidence in Washington, where signs of frustration have reportedly appeared over the apparent lack of progress on denuclearization.
Authoritative, US-based website 38 North, which boasts a specialized focus on satellite data analysis of North Korea, announced the findings early on Tuesday, complete with photographs of the site, known as the Sohae Satellite Launching Station. Continue reading
North Korea offered to stop selling missile technology to Iran and other enemies of Israel in exchange for $1 billion in cash from the Jewish state, according to former senior North Korean diplomat who has now defected. The account of the offer can be read in Password from the Third Floor, a book published earlier this year by Thae Yong Ho. Thae, a member of a prominent North Korean family, defected with his wife and children in 2016, while he was serving as a senior member of the diplomatic staff of the North Korean embassy in London. News of Thae’s defection emerged on August 16, 2016, when a South Korean newspaper reported that he had disappeared from London after having escaped with his family “to a third country”. Thae later emerged in Seoul, from where he publicly denounced the North Korean regime. Continue reading
Defcon warns that North Korea could still be developing its nuclear arsenal
NORTH Korea’s destruction of its nuclear facility was “superficial” and “insufficient” to destroy the uranium enrichment plant, security experts behind the Defcon Warning System have warned, as they announced the threat level remained at FIVE.
The Defcon Warning System, a private organisation made up of experts monitoring nuclear threats against the US, said North Korea could still upgrade its nuclear site at a “rapid pace”.
They warned “technical equipment” from Kim Jong-un’s nuclear facility were “removed prior to its detonation” – indicating the hermit state still plans on using the crucial technology. Continue reading
After Iran warned it will leave the nuclear accord unless benefits are forthcoming, an atomic energy official in Tehran said that uranium enrichment would resume at Fordow – if that happens. Continue reading
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