We saw it coming: after Pyongyang’s refusal to kneel, the accusations are coming from everywhere: US officials claim that Pyongyang is trying to deceive the Washington authorities. They think that North Korea has increased the production of fuel for its nuclear missiles!

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US intelligence estimates North Korea is making more nuclear fuel despite talks.

US intelligence agencies believe that North Korea has increased fuel production for several secret sites in recent months and may try to hide them while seeking concessions in nuclear talks with the United States.

The US news channel, NBC News said in a report released Friday (June 29th) that US intelligence agencies said the latest US intelligence assessment seemed to run counter to the sentiments expressed by President Donald Trump, who tweeted after an unprecedented summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. "There is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea."

According to NBC, five US officials who wish to remain anonymous claimed that in recent months, North Korea has increased its production of fuel for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

NBC News quoted US officials as saying the intelligence assessment concluded that North Korea has more than one secret nuclear site in addition to its known nuclear fuel production facility in Yongbyon.

"There is absolutely unequivocal evidence that they are trying to deceive the United States," said a US official.

The CIA declined to comment on the NBC report. The State Department said it could not confirm it and did not comment on intelligence issues. The NBC report raises further questions about North Korea’s willingness to engage serious negotiations on the abandonment of an arms program that now threatens the United States, despite Trump’s enthusiastic description of the outcome of the summit.

NBC quoted a senior US intelligence official as saying that North Korea’s decision to suspend nuclear and missile testing was unexpected. However, he added: "the work is underway to deceive us on the number of installations, the number of weapons, the number of missiles ... We are watching closely".

Jeffrey Lewis, director of the non-proliferation program in East Asia at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, said there were two "bombs" in the NBC report.

He said it was long understood that North Korea had at least one undeclared facility to enrich nuclear fuel outside of Yongbyon.

 
"This assessment indicates that there is more than one secret site, which means there are at least three, if not more sites," he said.

Lewis said the report also implied that US intelligence agencies had reports suggesting that North Korea did not intend to divulge one or more of the fuel production sites.

"Together, these two things would imply that North Korea intended to divulge certain sites as part of the denuclearization process, while retaining others," he said.

North Korea agreed at the summit to "work towards the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula", but the joint statement signed by Kim and Trump did not give any details on how Pyongyang could surrender its nuclear weapons.

 
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that he will likely return to North Korea in a short period of time to try to flesh out the commitments made at the Trump-Kim meeting.

Pyongyang "completely" dismantled on May 24, 2018 the Punggye-ri test site in the northeast.