North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un inspects an honor guard ahead of his departure to Singapore in Pyongyang on June 10, 2018. KCNA | Reuters North Korea is upgrading its only known nuclear research facility, satellite imagery has shown, despite ongoing negotiations with multiple world leaders and a pledge to abandon its weapons program. The satellite photos, obtained by North Korea analysis outlet 38 North, indicate that the isolated regime is making numerous improvements to its Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center “at a rapid pace.” The report comes just over two weeks after President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed an agreement that called for a denuclearized Korean peninsula. 38 North is a U.S.-based project that looks to gather the insight of several long-time observers of North Korea. The site, which is perhaps best known for its monitoring of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, is affiliated with experts at both the Stimson Center and non-profit Foreign Policy Research Institute.<doc-sep>NORTH Korea has been making rapid improvements to its nuclear research facility — despite Kim Jong-un’s pledge to denuclearise during his summit with President Donald Trump, the New York Post reports. The dictator promised to “work toward” the goal at the June 12 summit with President Trump in Singapore, which produced a vaguely worded agreement that provided few details about the rogue regime’s commitment. Mr Trump — who declared on Twitter that there was “no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea” — claimed the process would start quickly, saying “it will be a total denuclearisation, which is already taking place.” Jenny Town, managing editor of respected website 38 North, wrote on Twitter: “Infrastructure improvements continue at Yongbyon. Underscores reason why an actual deal is necessary, not just a statement of lofty goals.” Recent satellite imagery showed that not only were operations continuing at present at the Yongbyon nuclear site, the North also was carrying out infrastructure works, according to 38 North. Satellite images show Pyongyang upgrading its nuclear research site https://t.co/7z10pfVW3G — The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 27, 2018 “Commercial satellite imagery from June 21 indicates that improvements to the infrastructure at Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center are continuing at a rapid pace,” it said. The cooling system for the plutonium production reactor has been modified and at least two buildings have been built on the site, possibly for use by visiting officials, according to The Guardian. A new engineering office building also has been completed and construction has continued on support facilities at the complex, according to a blog post written by Frank Pabian, Joseph Bermudez Jr. and Jack Liu. But continued operations at the site “should not be seen as having any relationship with North Korea’s pledge to denuclearise,” the monitor noted, adding that nuclear officials could be “expected to proceed with business as usual until specific orders are issued from Pyongyang.” Meanwhile, the Trump administration last week extended decade-old sanctions against Kim’s regimen, citing the “extraordinary threat” from the North’s nuclear arsenal. After the summit, Mr Trump also abruptly announced a halt to joint military drills with South Korea, calling the exercises “provocative” to the North and “very expensive.” It took the Pentagon several hours to confirm the surprise decision, and the drills were only officially cancelled two weeks after the summit. Defence Secretary James Mattis is set to visit Seoul on Thursday to discuss the issue with his South Korean counterpart. This article originally appeared on the New York Post and has been republished with permission.<doc-sep>SEOUL—North Korea is upgrading its nuclear research center at a rapid pace, new satellite imagery analysis suggests, despite Pyongyang’s commitment to denuclearization at a summit with the U.S. this month. The analysis from 38 North, a North Korea-focused website published by the Stimson Center in Washington, found that Pyongyang, in recent weeks, appears to have modified the cooling system of its plutonium-production reactor and erected a new building near the cooling tower. New Construction could also be observed at the site’s experimental light-water reactor, the report said. The satellite pictures, captured on June 21, nine days after the Singapore summit meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, showed no immediate effort to begin denuclearization at North Korea’s key nuclear research site. Related Video At an unprecedented summit in Singapore, Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un displayed friendliness, but talks offered few specifics on denuclearization. WSJ's Eun-Young Jeong reports from the city-state. Illustration: Sharon Shi Shortly after shaking hands with Mr. Kim on June 12, Mr. Trump said the North Korean leader would return home to begin dismantling his country’s nuclear program. “In fact, when he lands—which is going to be shortly—I think that he will start that process right away,” Mr. Trump told reporters. At a June 21 cabinet meeting, he said the two sides had agreed to “immediately begin total denuclearization of North Korea.” The statement signed by the two leaders, however, says only that North Korea “commits to work towards complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” Mr. Trump said the process could take many years, but, in a tweet posted after his return to the U.S. on June 13, he said: “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.” The 38 North report, which is based on commercial satellite imagery of North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear research site captured by Airbus Defence & Space, found that the necessary infrastructure for operations at the experimental light-water reactor “appears externally complete.” It wasn’t clear whether operations at the reactor had begun, the report said. Sen. Ed Markey (D., Mass. ), the senior Democrat on Senate Foreign Relations East Asia Subcommittee, said the imagery suggests North Korea isn’t adhering to its pledge to denuclearize. “Despite his claims to the contrary, President Trump got a weaker deal with fewer commitments than any of his predecessors,” Mr. Markey said. “The North Korean nuclear threat continues despite President Trump’s naive assurances.” Despite concern from some lawmakers, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo didn’t address the matter at a congressional hearing on Wednesday. However, Mr. Pompeo said that he was “optimistic” the U.S. would receive remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War in 1950-53 from North Korea, a promise by Pyongyang, in the near future and insisted that North Korea understood what steps it needs to take to secure an agreement in which it would give up its nuclear weapons and programs in return for security guarantees and economic benefits. “We’ve been pretty unambiguous in our conversations about what we mean when we say complete denuclearization,” he said North Korea began work in 2010 on experimental light-water reactor, which is several times as large as the plutonium-production reactor at Yongbyon. North Korea has said that it plans to use the new reactor for civilian electricity production. It could also be used to produce fissile material. Some experts cautioned against relying solely on the satellite pictures as proof of duplicity on the regime’s part. Andrea Berger, a London-based senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Calif., said that the satellite imagery could only show what is happening on the outside. “These infrastructure developments provide limited insight into the future direction of North Korea’s nuclear program,” Ms. Berger said. Even so, she added, the photos “highlight the likelihood that North Korea has not pressed pause on its general nuclear and missile activities while talks are ongoing.” The 38 North analysts, Frank Pabian, Joseph Bermudez and Jack Liu, said that they expected “business as usual” at the nuclear facility “until specific orders are issued from Pyongyang.” 38 North, in commentary pieces, has generally supported engagement and dialogue with North Korea, though its satellite imagery analyses have captured the regime’s preparations for nuclear and missile tests. Ahead of the Singapore summit, North Korea invited journalists to watch it blow up its Punggye-ri nuclear test site in its mountainous northeast as a show of its good faith. North Korea didn’t invite any experts, some of whom had said that the site was likely already unusable. Mr. Kim had said in April that he considered the country’s nuclear program complete, and that no further tests were needed. At Yongbyon in May 2008, North Korea invited journalists to witness the destruction of a cooling tower as part of a rapprochement with the George W. Bush administration. But within months, North Korea was threatening to reverse some of its steps toward denuclearization, and less than a year later it conducted its second nuclear test. This time around, Mr. Pompeo, who met Mr. Kim twice in Pyongyang before a third meeting in Singapore at the summit, has emphasized his belief that Mr. Kim was sincere in his pledges to denuclearize. “I heard it myself when I visited Pyongyang as Secretary of State, and I heard it again when there was a group together with the president and Chairman Kim,” Mr. Pompeo told CNN this week. “He has been unequivocal in his statement that he’s prepared to do this.” Mr. Trump told reporters in Singapore that Mr. Kim had told him North Korea was destroying a “major missile-engine testing site,” which he described as another sign of North Korea’s commitment to giving up its nuclear weapons program. Mr. Trump also pointed to North Korea’s promise to return the remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the Korean War, which was one of the points agreed to by the two sides in the joint statement from the Singapore summit. Over the weekend, the U.S. began making preparations to receive the remains from North Korea at the inter-Korean border area. Write to Jonathan Cheng at jonathan.cheng@wsj.com<doc-sep>North Korea is carrying out improvements to its nuclear testing facility North Korea is carrying out improvements at its nuclear testing facility, new research has discovered. The work at the facility comes despite a pledge by the country to completely denuclearise following the summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. New satellite images of the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Centre show that upgrades are being carried out ‘at a rapid pace’, according to North Korea analysis organisation 38 North. Pictures taken on 21 June show that modifications to equipment are ongoing, new buildings are being erected and a radiochemical laboratory is seemingly still active. An overview of the 5 MWe reactor (38North) Analysts at 38 North note that, despite the promises made at the summit, workers at the nuclear plant would be expected to continue as usual until specific orders to the contrary are made by Pyongyang. The new evidence pours water on Donald Trump’s claim last week that the process of ‘total denuclearisation’ was underway. The President told a White House meeting that the North had already blown up four of its biggest nuclear test sites, despite there being no evidence to support this. This undated image shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at an undisclosed location inspecting nuclear warheads. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File) ‘They’ve stopped the sending of missiles, including ballistic missiles. They’re destroying their engine site,’ Mr Trump said. ‘They’re blowing it up. They’ve already blown up one of their big test sites, in fact it’s actually four of their big test sites. ‘And the big thing is it will be a total denuclearisation, which has already started taking place.’ Despite the President’s bluster, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted this week that there was no specific timeline for steps towards denuclearisation. Donald Trump waves after saying goodbye to North Korea leader Kim Jong Un at the Capella resort on Sentosa Island in Singapore. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool) Speaking to CNN, Mr Pompeo, who has been tasked with leading the negotiations, said that he planned to regularly assess the progress towards abandoning nuclear power by the regime. ‘I am not going to put a timeline on it, whether that’s two months, six months, we are committed to moving forward in an expeditious moment to see if we can achieve what both leaders set out to do,’ he said. Story continues Last week the President signed an executive order acknowledging that North Korea still poses an ‘extraordinary threat’ to the US. Mr Trump extended the ‘national emergency’ against the regime for a further year, allowing America to continue stringent economic sanctions. The executive order states that ‘the existence and risk of proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material’ and the actions and policies of the North Korean government ‘continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States’.<doc-sep>
North Korea is upgrading a major nuclear research facility despite President Donald Trump's claim that leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to disarm, according to new satellite images and a research paper published by a North Korea monitoring group. Experts at 38 North, a website affiliated with the Stimson Center in Washington D.C. devoted to analysis of North Korea, concluded the images show that "improvements to the infrastructure at North Korea's Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center are continuing at a rapid pace." The satellite images are from June 21. That's less than two weeks after Trump boasted of a diplomatic breakthrough with Pyongyang over its nuclear weapons program after decades of hostility. Trump and Kim signed a joint declaration at a summit in Singapore on June 12 and pledged to work toward peace and to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. "We’re ready to write a new chapter between our nations," Trump said at a news conference following the summit. He called his meeting with Kim "honest, direct and productive." More:Trump-Kim summit agreement: Read the full text here The improvements to the Yongbyon facility include modifications to a plutonium production reactor’s cooling system and various support facilities. Uranium enrichment, a key component for civil nuclear power generation and military nuclear weapons, is still taking place, according to 38 North's interpretation of the images. There was no immediate reaction from the White House to 38 North's analysis. The Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center is located about 60 miles north of the country's capital and is a core part of its nuclear weapons program. Still, the monitoring group conceded in its research paper that the ongoing improvements to the Yongbyon facility should not necessarily be seen as having any direct relationship to North Korea’s recent pledge to denuclearize. "The North’s nuclear cadre can be expected to proceed with business as usual until specific orders are issued from Pyongyang," the authors of the report said. In an apparent sign of goodwill before the Trump-Kim summit, North Korea in May claimed it demolished a separate nuclear test site at Punggye-ri, which sits in a sparsely populated mountainous region in the country's northeast. But the Singapore summit has been criticized for being light on details of any policy changes and producing only an intention to denuclearize. It did not produce anything on how to get it done. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the U.S. will regularly assesses Pyongyang's seriousness toward abandoning its nuclear weapons program, but has not committed to a timeline or roadmap. He is expected to visit North Korea next week, South Korean media reported. "North Korea is not obligated to any specific actions as of yet, but (these images) certainly underscore the importance of continuing negotiations, and getting a detailed agreement in place to freeze North Korea’s nuclear program," said Jenny Town, managing editor at 38 North, in emailed comments. "This is the true test of the Trump administration, to now see if they have the will and ability to do the hard work needed to move past lofty goals to practical and sustainable solutions."