Posted on 08/21/2018 5:27:45 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
VIENNA: The UN's nuclear watchdog said it had not seen any indication that nuclear activities in North Korea have stopped despite its pledges to denuclearise.
"The continuation and further development of the DPRK's nuclear programme and related statements by the DPRK are a cause for grave concern," said a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), referring to North Korea's official name.
The report, published late Monday (Aug 20), by the director general of Yukiya Amano is to be submitted to an IAEA board meeting in September.
In 2009 Pyongyang expelled IAEA inspectors from its Yongbyon nuclear site and has since refused to allow IAEA inspections on its territory.
The watchdog has stepped up monitoring through open source information and satellite imagery, it said.
"As the Agency remains unable to carry out verification activities in the DPRK, its knowledge of the DPRK's nuclear programme is limited and, as further nuclear activities take place in the country, this knowledge is declining," it said.
Between late-April and early-May, there were indications of the operation of the steam plant that serves the radiochemical laboratory at the Yongbyon site, according to the report.
However, the duration of the steam plant's operation was not sufficient to have supported the reprocessing of a complete core from the experimental nuclear power plant reactor, it added.
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/north-korea-nuclear-activities-testing-not-stopped-un-iaea-10638330
Our own intelligence resources, not just the UN’s (namely National Geospatial Agency, DIA, etc etc and not to mention Japanese intelligence agencies) unfortunately now ••concur•• with IAEA that Norks are up to no good and continue forward as before (I would add, despite the news cycle optics for mass consumption and narrative furtherance ).
Nobody in the current Administration has definitively stepped forward and challenged these findings over the last several months. In fact, there has been silence and no confirmation nor denial. Now isn’t that a bit strange? If this is incorrect, why no counter argument or evidence to the contrary to what IAEA, and our own agencies and those of ally countries are confirming?
President Trump just said in his WV rally that there have been no launches.
Alrighty then. :-)
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