North Korea has been engaging in major deception by offering to dismantle a launching site at the same time it secretly continues to make improvements at 16 hidden bases that would bolster launches of conventional and nuclear warheads, The New York Times reported on Monday.
The existence of the bases contradicts President Donald Trump’s assertion that his diplomacy is leading to the elimination of Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile program.
And, ironically, according to the Times, the sanctions that Trump touts are harming North Korea because Pyongyang has resumed trade with Russia and China based largely on its better ties with the U.S. and its stated commitment to eventual denuclearization.
The secret missile bases have been identified in commercial satellite images and published Monday in a study by the Beyond Parallel program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Beyond Parallel is led by Victor Cha, a prominent North Korea expert who stresses that work is continuing at these secret bases.
“What everybody is worried about,” Cha insists, “is that Trump is going to accept a bad deal - they give us a single test site and dismantle a few other things, and in return they get a peace agreement” that formally ends the Korean War. Trump “would then declare victory, say he got more than any other American president ever got, and the threat would still be there.”
The State Department responded to the study with a statement that failed to directly address the secret bases, saying “President Trump has made clear that should Chairman Kim follow through on his commitments, including complete denuclearization and the elimination of ballistic missile programs, a much brighter future lies ahead for North Korea and its people.”
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