In public, Trump praises Kim Jong Un. But his administration is taking a tougher stance toward North Korea as proof mounts it’s still making nuclear weapons.
WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump issues a steady stream of praise for Kim Jong Un in interviews and on Twitter, a steady stream of evidence that North Korea is still making nuclear weapons has pushed his administration to take a much more aggressive stance toward Pyongyang.
The newest intelligence shows Kim’s regime has escalated efforts to conceal its nuclear activity, according to three senior U. S. officials. During the three months since the historic Singapore summit and Trump’s proclamation that North Korea intends to denuclearize, North Korea has built structures to obscure the entrance to at least one warhead storage facility, according to the officials.
The U. S. has also observed North Korean workers moving warheads out of the facility, the officials said, though they would not speculate on where the warheads went.
One former senior U. S. official said North Korea frequently moves equipment around to hinder foreign intelligence gathering. “They’re trying to move them around so our sensors are confused,” the official said.
U. S. intelligence assesses North Korea could produce five to eight new nuclear weapons in 2018, according to three current and former senior U. S. officials. That pace is virtually identical to their assessment of the regime’s production of about six per year prior to the Trump-Kim summit.
Bruce W. Bennett, a senior international/defense researcher at the RAND Corporation and an expert in Northeast Asia military affairs, agrees with that assessment of the pace of production.
“Since the beginning of 2018, Kim has surrendered and dismantled no nuclear weapons, but has likely built five to nine new nuclear weapons. So he has not frozen his nuclear program and he has certainly not been denuclearizing; instead, he has been nuclearizing.”
The Trump administration has launched what it calls a “maximum pressure” campaign against North Korea in response.
Public rhetoric, meanwhile, has a different tone. After his June meeting with Kim in Singapore Trump said, “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”
Trump tweeted a “thank you” to Kim on Thursday for proclaiming his “unwavering faith” after a South Korean official reported Kim wanted to denuclearize before the end of Trump’s first term. The South Korean official said Kim emphasized “that he has never said anything negative about President Trump.”
“We will get it done together!,” tweeted Trump.
Friday morning, Fox News aired a taped interview with Trump in which he insisted, “Kim Jong un said very nice things. He said we want to get denuclearization during the Trump administration.”
On Sunday, North Korea held its annual Foundation Day military parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the nation on Sept. 9. In past years, the Kim regime has used the parade to show off missiles and new technology.
This year, however, North Korea did not display any ICBMs. On Twitter, President Trump said “experts” were heralding the absence as a sign of the Kim regime’s “commitment to denuclearization.” He thanked Kim and called the lack of missiles a “very positive statement.
