Posted on 07/07/2018 10:58:47 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Evidence gathered by South Korea’s military suggests Pyongyang is working on the submarine on its east coast, said Kim Hack-yong, who chaired the legislature’s defense committee until his term ended a few weeks ago.
Satellite imagery reviewed by South Korean intelligence officials showed the movement of laborers and materials at the port of Sinpo, where the submarine appears to be under construction at an indoor facility, an aide to Mr. Kim said.
U.S. officials consider the program a threat because such missiles are harder to identify and destroy before launch, potentially giving North Korea a greater element of surprise in an attack.
As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Pyongyang, North Korean weapons developments have raised questions about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s commitment to denuclearize following his agreement with President Donald Trump in Singapore last month.
On Friday, Mr. Pompeo was expected to press North Korean officials for concrete steps to deliver on those pledges, such as a timeline for disarmament.
In recent days, though, satellite images have indicated North Korea is expanding a missile-production facility and erecting a new building at one of its plutonium-producing reactors.
North Korea also appears to be preparing for its annual summer military exercises and hasn’t ceased sending orders to its spies in South Korea through coded messages, said Mr. Kim, the lawmaker.
The latest evidence shows the need to maintain pressure on North Korea and force the regime to negotiate, said Yang Uk, the chief defense analyst at Korea Defense and Security Forum, a Seoul-based private think tank.
“It’s too early to say if the North Koreans have defaulted on the Singapore agreement to denuclearize,” he said. “But earlier satellite images have already shown enough evidence proving North Korea has not abandoned its SLBM program.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Oh, my goodness, you never really believed Kim was seriously considering giving up his nukes, did you???
I never really believe articles like this that’s for sure.
Paywall. There is only one source (private think tank) shown in the summary. Please post the official sources of this article. What is your opinion of the veracity of the WSJ claims?
And this from a "Think Tank"? Come on, there's a lot of money to be made telling the MIC what wants to hear in order to sell Congress on more money for military hardware that almost never works as advertised until after the first half dozen "upgrades".
Within S. Korea there is a strong divide between the Leftist party in power (Moon Jae In) and the Conservative party with regards to handling the North.
Leftist party is difficult to trust because for them “negotiation” traditionally means appeasement and unification at any cost.
Conservatives of course want peace and reunification one day, but not as ready to trust or negotiate with Kim Jong Un under current terms.
Who were the primary named sources to support the thesis of the article? You answered with an opinion and a claim. Surely they had sources in this article.
Is the SK Intelligence community as honest, unbiased, and corruption free as the US equivalent?
What’s your point?
Is this the same Kim Hack-yong who was angry with the Bolton nomination?
Would it make you feel better if the sources were North Korean instead? Cause that is where your logic is going.
You know nothing of South Korea if you think anyone's objective there is to start a war. North Korea isn't some faraway land in the Middle East. If there's a war, it is South Korea that has the most to lose. -- But enough know how NK operates and don't want to be screwed over in a corrupted peace process either that is ripe for being hijacked but all kinds of sinister parties.
You could have just said, "I don't know".
Anyone who has paid any attention to Korea over the past few decades has at least a general idea of how NK operates so telling me SK Ingelligence folks do too isn't really saying much of anything.
“Oh, my goodness, you never really believed Kim was seriously considering giving up his nukes, did you???”
If China told him to do it, yes
Well this is not an issue just between Trump and Kim Jong Un. North Korea has partners. Please don’t kid yourself into thinking that China and Russia want peace for peace’s sake. They are going to make sure their interests are secure and are in no way interested in giving Trump a free hand in assistance.
And the other component is the political divisions *inside* South Korea over what reunification should like and on what terms it should come about.
The most unpredictable elephant in the room is North Korea itself. Not Kim Jong Un, but the quiet resistance building against his rule within his own country and in some segments of the elite population as well.
Is the SK Intelligence community the same sort of beast or not. You don't know, but thank you for your opinions on the broad general subject of Korea.
In order to take this article seriously and be concerned about it your logic would have to be that Trump doesn’t have access to this intelligence or its equivalent.
To be fair, there is a marked improvement in Kim’s behavior than before.
That is a whale of an understatement.
Let them bring it. A quick slap down
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