North Korea ‘building new ballistic missiles’ despite Kim meeting with Trump, claim US intelligence agencies

North Korea is building new ballistic missiles according to US intelligence agencies, it has been reported.

The Washington Post quoted unnamed US officials who made the claim based on satellite photos and infrared imaging.

The newspaper reported that North Korea appears to be constructing at least one or two liquid-fuelled intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at a factory in Sanumdong, outside the capital Pyongyang.

The same facility is known to have produced the Hwasong-15, the country’s first missile capable of reaching the US.

The claims come just weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US president Donald Trump met in Singapore to agree on denuclearisation.

Following the meeting, Mr Trump said North Korea was “no longer a nuclear threat”.

An official told the Reuters news agency that a liquid-fuelled ICBM didn’t “pose nearly the threat that a solid-fuelled one would because they take so long to fuel”.

It also reported that the satellite images showed vehicles moving in and out of the factory, but not any missile construction.

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The Washington Post said imagery from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency suggests ongoing work on at least one missile at the factory.

“We see them going to work, just as before,” a US official told the Post.

A US official who spoke to Reuters said one photo showed a truck and a covered trailer similar to those used to move previous North Korean ICBMs.

The White House would not comment on the report.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that North Korea was continuing to produce fuel for nuclear bombs despite its pledge to denuclearise. But he insisted the Trump administration was still making progress in its talks with Pyongyang.

The unnamed US official told Reuters that Pyongyang has still not tested a reliable re-entry vehicle capable of surviving a high-velocity trip through the Earth’s atmosphere and delivering a nuclear warhead.

It is possible, the official said, that any new missiles being built may be for further testing of such vehicles and of more accurate guidance systems.

“They seem to have figured out the engines, but not all the higher-tech stuff, and that might be what this is about,” the official said.

“What’s more, a liquid-fuelled ICBM doesn’t pose nearly the threat that a solid-fuelled one would because they take so long to fuel, and that’s something we almost certainly could see in time to abort a launch, given our assets in the vicinity.”