North Korea sends positive signal by dismantling satellite launch site

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.

N. Korea will never fully give up nuclear weapons: top defector

North Korea will never completely give up its nuclear weapons, a top defector said ahead of leader Kim Jong Un’s landmark summit with US President Donald Trump next month.

The current whirlwind of diplomacy and negotiations will not end with “a sincere and complete disarmament” but with “a reduced North Korean nuclear threat”, said Thae Yong-ho, who fled his post as the North’s deputy ambassador to Britain in August 2016.

“In the end, North Korea will remain ‘a nuclear power packaged as a non-nuclear state’,” Thae told the South’s Newsis news agency.

Here’s Why Kim Jong-un Suspended Nuke Testing

 

The South China Morning Post, citing two separate groups of Chinese scientists, reports that Mount Mantap—into which the Hermit Kingdom had been burrowing to set off test detonations—has collapsed, putting the entire region “at unprecedented risk of radioactive exposure.”

The report states:

“One group of researchers found that the most recent blast tore open a hole in the mountain, which then collapsed upon itself. A second group concluded that the breakdown created a ‘chimney’ that could allow radioactive fallout from the blast zone below to rise into the air.”

Trump: If China won’t “solve” North Korea problem, WE will

 

(WASHINGTON, DC) Trump plans to push China to put greater pressure on North Korea during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping next week, but if Xi refuses, the U.S. will go its own way.

“China has great influence over North Korea. China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t,” the president told the Financial Times, “If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will.”

North Korea May Provide It’s Own Election Day Bombshell

• Military officials suggest that the North may attempt another launch one of its Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), a potential threat to U.S. forces in Guam.
• The American strategic assets stationed in Guam could be used to back up U.S. and South Korean troops on the Korean peninsula were the North to attack its southern neighbor.
• South Korea’s military noted that Pyongyang may want to present a show of force to demonstrate that it will continue its nuclear and ballistic missile programs despite pressure from the U.S. and the international community.

Photos show new N. Korea nuclear test tunnel: US think tank

Recent satellite imagery suggests North Korea is excavating a new tunnel at its main nuclear test site, although there are no indications that a test in imminent, a US think tank said Thursday.

The tunnel is in a new area of the Punggye-ri site, separate from three other tunnels that the North has excavated or used for actual tests in the post, the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said.