North Korea expands long-range missile base
- by Cecilia Wilkerson
- in World News
- — Dec 8, 2018
"Whatever Kim says about his desire for denuclearization, North Korea continues to produce and deploy nuclear armed missiles", he told CNN.
New satellite pictures obtained by 2 Investigates show continuous construction of a large underground facility that has been kept under wraps and located roughly seven miles away from the known Yeongjeo-dong site. "Moreover, in the past year North Korea has significantly expanded a nearby facility that appears to be another missile base", the report said, adding that it was not known if the bases were separate or if one was subordinate to the other.
John Bolton, the U.S. national security adviser, told the Wall Street Journal earlier this week that President Trump believes he should hold a second summit with Kim early next year as the North Koreans "have not lived up to the commitments" of their first deal in June.
John Bolton, Trump's national security adviser, said Tuesday the president wants to hold a second meeting with Kim because North Korea has not lived up to the commitments it made last summer. His administration has also repeatedly claimed progress in talks with North Korea, citing the lack of nuclear and ballistic missile tests since the country launched its Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile in November of past year.
"That's why I think the president thinks that another summit is likely to be productive", Bolton said during the Wall Street Journal's CEO conference.
Since the Singapore meeting, talks between North Korea and the United States have stalled over how to eradicate the North's nuclear weapons program.
Despite the initial optimism generated by Kim and Trump's June summit meeting in Singapore, little has transpired since then. After a series of dubious talks, Trump claimed that he and Kim "fell in love" and that denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula would come "very, very quickly".
In October, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Kim Jong-Un in Pyongyang to verify that the Punggye-ri nuclear test site had been "irreversibly dismantled". There have been five summit meetings between the leaders of the Koreas, three of them between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, but they all happened either in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, or the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom.
In 2000, the United States sought access to this and other missile bases as part of an agreement to end North Korea's missile program - and was rebuffed by Kim Jong Un's father, Kim Jong Il. A headquarters area is positioned at the mouth of the valley, the images show. "Around 2010, North Korea constructed a pair of large drive-through suitable for large ballistic missiles".
