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U.S. According to the US authorities, North Korea does not intend to completely renounce its nuclear arsenal and instead is considering ways to conceal the number of weapons it has and secret production facilities , according to US officials
. Evidence collected following the June 12 summit in Singapore shows that preparations have been made to deceive the United States on the number of nuclear warheads in the North Korean arsenal and the existence undisclosed facilities for making fissile materials for nuclear bombs.
The results support a new National Defense estimate that North Korea should not denuclearize.
This assessment contrasts sharply with President Trump's exuberant comments following the summit, when he declared on Twitter that "there is no longer a nuclear threat" of North Korea. At a recent rally, he also stated that he had "a lot of success" with Pyongyang
. Intelligence officials and many North Korean experts have generally taken a more cautious stance, noting Kim Jong Un's vague commitment to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. a close echo of North Korean leaders' previous commitments over the past two decades, even though they have accelerated efforts to secretly manufacture nuclear weapons.
[North Korea’s dispersed and hidden weapons complex highlights the challenge of denuclearization]
The new information, described by four officials who saw them or received information about the material collected in the weeks since the summit. Officials insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive assessments on a country that has long been one of the most difficult targets to penetrate for spying agencies. Specifically, the DIA concluded that North Korean authorities are investigating ways to deceive Washington on the number of nuclear warheads and missiles, as well as on the type and number of facilities that they possess. , believing that the United States is not aware of the full range of their activities.
Some US intelligence officials estimate for at least a year that the number of warheads is about 65, as reported by the Washington Post last year. But North Korean officials suggest that they say much less.
The only uranium enrichment facility that has been recognized by North Korea is in Yongbyon, 60 miles north of Pyongyang. It is estimated that this site produced fissile material up to two dozen warheads
Meanwhile, North Koreans have also operated an underground secret uranium enrichment site. called Kangson, which was reported for the first time in May by the Washington Post. . This site is considered by most officials as having twice the enrichment capacity of Yongbyon. US intelligence agencies became aware of the nuclear facility in 2010.
In recent years, the United States, through imaging and computer hacking, has improved intelligence gathering in Korea North. Pyongyang officials seek to conceal the exact number of their weapons facilities, and US secret service officials believe that there is more than one hidden site. The Post retains the details at the request of intelligence agents
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment
[Trump and Kim declare summit a big success, but they diverge on the details]
David Albright, former weapons expert and president of the Korea Institute of Science North. and international security, said the assessments come at a time when "there is a concern that the Trump administration may go soft, and accept an agreement that focuses on Yongbyon and forgets these other sites."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged that it could take years to implement any agreement on the elimination of North Korea's nuclear stockpile, a hard-won asset that North Korean rulers consider as a guarantor of their survival. Asked by senators Wednesday on the state of private negotiations with North Korean officials, he refused to provide specific details.
"I'm not ready to talk about the details of the discussions that are taking place," he said. the Senate Intelligence Committee. "I think it would be inappropriate and, frankly, counterproductive to reach the end state we hope to achieve."
Asked about Trump's assertion that the North Korean threat had been eliminated, Pompeo said Trump meant that the threat had been reduced. "While North Korea made a public demonstration in June of the demolition of the country's main nuclear weapons testing site, there has been little public evidence of efforts to dismantle dozens of if North Korea's promises were sincere, it may take years of work, accompanied by an unprecedented agreement to grant access to outside inspectors, before US officials can confidently say " North Korea has not made any further commitments to denuclearization, "he added.
In fact, Abraham M. Denmark, director of the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Fellows, told a committee of the House in late June
"North Korea remains free to manufacture more nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles and other weapons of mass destruction, even if she has unilateral has frozen the testing of its nuclear weapons and some ballistic missiles, "he said. "There is no time for them to eliminate their illegal abilities, or even freeze their continued production."
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