US intelligence agencies determine that North Korea is constructing new missiles: report

U.S. intelligence agencies indicate North Korea is building new missiles, officials told The Washington Post on Monday, weeks after President Trump declared the nation is “no longer a Nuclear Threat.”

Satellite images taken in recent weeks appear to show that at least one and possibly two liquid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are being worked on at a large research facility in Sanumdong, outside of the capital of Pyongyang.

{mosads}This is the same facility where the country first produced ICBMs that could reach the U.S., the newspaper noted. 

The classified intelligence comes weeks after Trump’s June summit with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un.

“We see them going to work, just as before,” said one U.S. official who spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity. 

U.S. spy networks can reportedly view supply trucks and other vehicles around the missile facility daily. 

A bright-red covered trailer, identical to those the country used to transport previous ICBMs, was photographed on July 7 at the facility’s loading area. 

Independent missile experts told the newspaper that they are observing the same activity. 

The facility is “not dead, by any stretch of the imagination,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. 

The nonprofit group analyzed the photos obtained from satellite firm Planet. 

“It’s active. We see shipping containers and vehicles coming and going,” Lewis said. “This is a facility where they build ICBMs and space-launch vehicles.”

Satellite images also show the Sohae Satellite Launching Station being dismantled, a step toward fulfilling the promises Kim made to Trump.

The two leaders signed an agreement committing the U.S. to unspecified “security guarantees” in exchange for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula.

The intelligence also comes weeks after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was chastised by North Korea officials amid ongoing negotiations, calling the meetings “regrettable.” 

An unnamed spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry in a statement accused the U.S. of unilaterally pressuring North Korea to denuclearize and “betraying the spirit” of the summit last month. 

They said Pompeo’s performance was “very concerning,” though he later told reporters that the negotiators “made progress on almost all the central issues.”