Monterey research team looks into North Korea nuclear program

The second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ends with no agreement.

This meeting in Vietnam followed the first summit in June in Singapore, where the focus was on the denuclearization of North Korea.

Grace Liu, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, in Monterey, says of North Korea, “they have taken down equipment at this site. They have taken down some of the support building at this test stand.”

Liu was pointing to a previously used missile site in North Korea.

On the surface, the team’s research shows North Korea taking steps to ramp down their missile and nuclear programs. Liu tells KION the first summit between President Trump and Kim ended with general plans, but no firm promise from North Korea to denuclearize.

However, the county has stopped testing missiles in that time.

“I very much appreciate no testing of nuclear rockets, missiles, any of it,” President Trump said at a joint press conference with Kim at the beginning of the second summit.

Liu warns though that much of what North Korea has done to break down their testing sites can easily be reversed.

“They can very easily put back some of the supplemental equipment on this base foundation and begin testing again,” Liu said. “We do see more activity, such as renovations and more construction, around sites that we know are associated with their nuclear program.”

The MIIS team works using open source material, things like satellite imagery, North Korea news clippings, and declassified documents. Despite demands from the U.S. to denuclearize, Liu says North Korea has actually been promoting nuclear weapons, even holding educational programs. “North Korean citizens from all over the country (are sent) to attend these seminars to detail how important nuclear weapons are.”