North Korea has increased nuclear production at secret sites, US officials say

Receive last minute alerts and special reports. WASHINGTON – US intelligence agencies believe that North Korea has increased its production of fuel for nuclear weapons at several secret sites in recent months – and that Kim Jong Un may US authorities have told NBC News that the US government has said it will not be able to do so. intelligence assessment, which has not been reported before, seems to counter the sentiments expressed by President Donald Trump, who tweeted after his historic summit on June 12 with Kim that "there was no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea. "

Analysts at the CIA and other intelligence agencies do not see it as well, according to more than a dozen American officials who are familiar with their ratings and spoke under the condition of the US. ;anonymity. They see a regime positioning itself to extract all the concessions it can from the Trump administration – while clinging to nuclear weapons that it believes are essential to survival.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In recent months, as both sides embarked on diplomacy, North Korea was intensifying its uranium production. enriched for nuclear weapons, according to five US officials, citing the latest intelligence assessment. North Korea and the United States have agreed at the summit to "work towards" denuclearization, but there is no specific agreement. On the order of Trump, the US Army canceled training exercises on the Korean Peninsula, a major concession to Kim.

While North Koreans stopped nuclear and nuclear tests, there is no indication that they have stopped their stockpiles. their production, "said a US official on the latest information." There is absolutely unequivocal evidence that they are trying to deceive the United States. "

Four other officials familiar with the assessment The intelligence agencies have also stated that North Korea intended to deceive the United States

Intelligence agencies have intensified their collection against North Korea in recent years, and this seems to be taking its toll. Fruits with a better understanding of a country that has long been the world's toughest spy target, according to officials.NBC News agreed to not disclose some details of the latest assessment of According to the authorities, this could endanger the sources.

"There are many things that North Korea has tried to hide from us for a long time.

It was long understood that North Korea had at least one undeclared facility to enrich nuclear fuel, with the exception of Yongbyon, its main nuclear site.

"When North Korea built the enrichment plant in Yongbyon did at a pace that suggested that it was not theirs first rodeo, namely not the first time that they had assembled large cascades of centrifuges, "said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program for Joel Wit, who negotiated a nuclear deal with North Korea in 1994, said that the United States has always believed that North Korea has two facilities to enrich nuclear materials: Yongbyon and one the second site of which the United States United are aware, but whose name has not been disclosed.

"People have been open to the possibility that there could be more," he said. Secret site, officials say to NBC News. The question is whether Kim will be willing to admit it.

"That's why people want North Korea to declare all of its facilities," said Wit, a former Clinton administration official and senior official of the Stimson Center. website dedicated to North Korea, 38north.com.