Despite the Singapore deal, North Korea’s up to its old tricks

A Capital Gazette newspaper rack displays the day's front page on Friday

Washington has reportedly devised a programme to dismantle North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs in a year.

North Korea will dismantle its nuclear program within a year, White House national security adviser John Bolton insisted on Sunday despite recent reports that North Korea's atomic weapons program is very much alive.

The latest USA intelligence assessment of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program suggests that "North Korean officials are exploring ways to deceive Washington about the number of nuclear warheads, and missiles and the types and numbers of facilities they have, believing that the United States is not aware of the full range of their activities", the Post reported, citing four US officials who have seen or been briefed on the latest intelligence.

"If they have the strategic decision already made to do that, and they're cooperative we can move very quickly", he said, adding, "It's to North Korea's advantage to see these programs dismantled very quickly" to speed the elimination of global sanctions and clear the way for foreign aid.

Kim told Xi that he wanted China's help to end the sanctions because it successfully concluded a summit between the United States and North Korea on June 12, the Yomiuri reported, citing unnamed sources close to the matter.

Siegfried Hecker, a nuclear scientist and Stanford University professor, has predicted it would take around 10 years to dismantle and clean up a substantial part of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear site.

Pompeo told CNN late last month that he would not set a deadline for the denuclearization of North Korea and would "constantly reassess" whether enough progress is being made to continue negotiations.

"There is absolutely unequivocal evidence that they are trying to deceive the U.S".

Despite Trump's rosy post-summit declaration that the North no longer poses a nuclear threat, Washington and Pyongyang have yet to negotiate the terms under which it would relinquish the weapons that it developed over decades to deter the U.S.

USA intelligence is not certain how many nuclear warheads North Korea has.

"Work is ongoing to deceive us on the number of facilities, the number of weapons, the number of missiles", said another.

After day two of the Trump-Kim Singapore summit, it was announced that Kim signed an agreement promising a "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula".

When grilled by lawmakers about the specifics of the administration's denuclearization plan for North Korea, Pompeo said he was "not prepared to talk about the details of the discussions that are taking place".

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined requests for comment.

A photo taken on May 24, 2018 shows a general view of a dust cloud surrounding the area near the entrance to a tunnel at North Korea's Punggye-ri nuclear test facility, during a demolition "ceremony".

Trump reiterated in an interview broadcast today that he thinks Kim is serious about denuclearization.

"I made a deal with him, I shook hands with him, I really believe he means it", Trump explained, then hedged, "Now, is it possible?" Trump feuded with G7 leaders during a summit in Canada last month over trade, abruptly dropping support for a routine joint statement. "We had a very good chemistry". They also pointed out that North Korea has made similar agreements in the past, only to renege.

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