US analysts identify 13 North Korean secret missile sites: report

WASHINGTON (AP) – US analysts said Monday they have located 13 secret missile development sites in North Korea, highlighting the challenge the Trump administration faces in trying to conclude its vast arms control agreement with Pyongyang.

The administration said it hoped to eventually reach an agreement with North Korea. After its historic summit in June, President Donald Trump declared that, with President Kim Jong Un, there was no longer any "nuclear threat from North Korea". But a report based on satellite imagery shows the complexity of a vast network of weapons that the United States wants to neutralize.

A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies identified 13 secret installations used for missile production and associated technology. Although the sites are not launch facilities and are sometimes rudimentary, the report's authors say they are hidden and illustrate the scope of the northern weapons program and the determination of the country to conceal its military power.

"The dispersed deployment of these bases and the distinctive tactics used by the ballistic missile units are combined with decades of widespread camouflage, concealment and deception practices to maximize the survival of its missile units from pre-emptive strikes and operations. of war, "they said.

The authors say that the sites, which can be used for all classes of ballistic missiles, should be declared by North Korea and inspected under any credible and verifiable agreement responding to Pyongyang's main threats to the United States and their allies.

The South Korean presidential office said the report did not include any information that he did not already know. President Kim Eui-kyeom's spokesman said the continued activities at North Korean missile sites only underscored the need to speed up nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang.

Kim criticized a New York Times article reporting that North Korea was engaged in "great disappointment," saying the North had never promised to dismantle a short-range ballistic missile base located 135 kilometers to the north. West of Seoul. was highlighted by CSIS.

Kim said such suggestions can "cause misunderstandings and potentially block dialogue … at a time when we need a dialogue between North Korea and the United States".

Seoul has been working hard to revive nuclear talks between the United States and North Korea, which have eased fears of war in South Korea as a result of a series of protests. North Korean weapons tests and threats of military action on the part of Trump last year.

North Korean analysts uninvolved in the report said the results were not surprising given Pyongyang's past activities, but that they were still worrisome. They noted that Kim had not agreed to halt the development of nuclear weapons or missiles in negotiations with Trump or Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

"The fact that North Korea has continued to build nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in the midst of high-level diplomacy with China, South Korea and the United States should not come as a surprise." said Abraham Denmark, director of Wilson's Asia program. Center. "Despite all the highs, North Korea is just as dangerous today as it was a year ago."

"Improving relations with Pyongyang can be a laudable goal, but any claim that nuclear and North Korean threats have been resolved is wishful thinking or misleading," he said.

"Interesting but not surprising report," said Kelsey Davenport, director of non-proliferation policy at the Arms Control Association. "Kim Jong Un is only willingly committed to end long-range missile testing."

The report was released less than a week after North Korea suddenly canceled a new round of negotiations with Pompeo, scheduled for Thursday in New York. The cancellation, attributed by the United States to scheduling problems, followed threats by North Korean officials to resume nuclear testing and missile testing unless US sanctions were lifted.

The administration has repeatedly said that sanctions would be lifted only when a denuclearization agreement is fully implemented.

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Kim Tong-hyung, Associate Press Editor in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.