North Korea is keeping long-range missile site active and is erecting a new, previously unidentified facility several miles away, according to a new report.
According to satellite images examined by researchers at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, the Yeongjeo-dong missile base has been active and “in the past year North Korea has significantly expanded a nearby facility that appears to be another missile base.”
The satellite images, obtained by CNN, indicate that the new facility was being built in 2017 and was still undergoing work in August 2018 — after President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed at a June summit to “work toward complete denuclearization” of the Korean peninsula.
“Whatever Kim says about his desire for denuclearization, North Korea continues to produce and deploy nuclear armed missiles,” said Jeffrey Lewis, an analyst from Middlebury Institute of International Studies, according to CNN.
The new site near Yeongjeo-dong base is tucked inside the mountainous area of North Korea. Lewis and his colleague David Schmerler predict this makes it a likely location for North Korea’s most recent long-range missiles that could target the U.S. It’s uncertain if the nearby facilities are individual bases, or if one takes precedence.
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In November, the Center for Strategic and International Studies also concluded in a report that North Korea was continuing its ballistic missile program.
“We watch North Korea very closely. We continue to support the diplomatic process. We will not discuss matters of intelligence,” Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Chris Logan said, according to CNN.
Although Trump told reporters over the weekend “we’re getting along very well” and “we have a good relationship with Kim,” national security adviser John Bolton later accused the regime of not abiding by the commitments originally made in June.
“They have not lived up to the commitments so far,” Bolton said Tuesday at the Wall Street Journal’s annual CEO Council conference in Washington.
