November 12, 2018

Newly revealed North Korean missile bases cast doubt on value of Trump’s summit with Kim Jong Un

Featuring Duyeon Kim

Source: The Washington Post

Journalist Adam Taylor

On Monday, a new report from a Washington think tank identified more than a dozen hidden bases in North Korea that could be used to disperse mobile launchers for ballistic missiles in the event of a conflict.

Are these bases evidence that North Korea is cheating on the agreement it reached in June, when President Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore? Analysts say the answer is no — although there are plenty of caveats.

“Kim hasn’t broken any promises," said Jeffrey Lewis, a nonproliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterrey. "Instead, he’s making good on one of them — to mass produce nuclear weapons.”

Joseph Bermudez, Victor Cha and Lisa Collins of the Center for Strategic and International Studies used satellite imagery and interviews with North Korean defectors and government officials to identify 13 missile bases. They say there are seven more bases that remain hidden.

Read the full article and more in The Washington Post.

Authors

  • Duyeon Kim

    Adjunct Senior Fellow, Asia-Pacific Security Program

    Duyeon Kim is an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Her expertise includes the two Koreas, nuclear ...