US ‘detects activity’ around North Korea missile site

North Korea appears to be working on new intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to American officials.

US spy satellites have detected activity at the North Korean factory that produced the nation’s first missiles it claimed were capable of reaching the continental US, a senior official said.

It came just a week after Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, announced Pyongyang was still producing fuel for nuclear weapons.

Vehicles have been spotted entering and leaving the complex at Sanumdong, but it is unclear how advanced any missile construction might be, the official told Reuters.

One photo of the activity showed a truck and covered trailer similar to those the North has used to move its missiles before, according to the official.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that North Korea appeared to be building one or two new liquid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missiles at the large research facility on the outskirts of Pyongyang, citing unidentified officials familiar with intelligence reporting.

The White House said it did not comment on intelligence. A senior official at South Korea’s presidential office said US and South Korean intelligence agencies were closely looking into various North Korean movements.

The evidence obtained this month is the latest to suggest activity in North Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities despite talks with the US and a June summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US president Donald Trump.

Mr Trump declared soon afterwards that North Korea no longer posed a nuclear threat. Mr Kim committed in a broad summit statement to work toward denuclearisation, but Pyongyang has offered no details as to how it might do this and subsequent talks have not gone smoothly.

Experts had warned before the summit that the two sides held different views on what “denuclearisation” really meant – with the US favouring unilateral disarmament by Pyongyang, and the latter wanting the removal of American troops from the peninsula.

It was not the first time US intelligence clashed with the president’s optimism.

In late June, US officials said that intelligence agencies believed North Korea had increased production of fuel for nuclear weapons and that it did not intend to fully give up its nuclear arsenal.

When Mr Pompeo told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs, he also insisted the Trump administration was making progress in its talks with Pyongyang.

The dialogue follows a year or more of fierce rhetoric on both sides. Infamously, Mr Trump threatened “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if Pyongyang continued its nuclear tests, while Kim Jong-un denounced his counterpart as a “dotard”.

When the pair met in June, however, they appeared cordial and Mr Trump made a significant concession to the younger leader, ending some joint military drills with South Korea.

Additional reporting by agencies