Days after his return from Singapore, Donald Trump was triumphant. “Everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office,” he declared on Twitter, shortly after his fulsome encounter with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.” In the three weeks since their cozy photo op, however, there has been zero evidence that North Korea is taking steps to denuclearize—an objective that U.S. officials previously described as a precondition for detente. On the contrary, North Korea appears to be ramping up its weapons program with vigor. In the last week alone, satellite imagery revealed that Kim's regime is making new improvements to its Yongbyon nuclear facility.
The Wall Street Journal reported that he has expanded a key solid-fuel missile facility. U.S. intelligence officials told The Washington Post they have evidence North Korea is trying to conceal its nuclear weapons from any future inspections, including the existence of a secret second uranium-enrichment site known as Kangson. NBC News reported similar findings Friday, featuring unnamed senior U.S. officials trying to get the word out. “Work is ongoing to deceive us on the number of facilities, the number of weapons, the number of missiles,” one official cautioned. “We are watching closely.”
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