Analysts: Activity at North Korean facilities suggests continued production of fissile material, missiles

Analysts say activity at North Korean weapons facilities suggests that Pyongyang has continued to make fissile material and intercontinental ballistic missiles, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Jenny Town of the Stimson Center, a security think tank, and Jeffrey Lewis of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies said that shipping containers, trucks and crowds moving materials at the facilities could indicate such production, according to the Journal.

{mosads}The report came after North Korea launched two short-range projectiles early Thursday morning local time, according to media reports.

President Trump has previously expressed confidence that North Korea will not conduct “testing of rockets and nuclear” weapons.

“One of the things, importantly, that Chairman Kim promised me last night is, regardless, he’s not going to do testing of rockets and nuclear,” Trump said in February after a second summit with Kim Jong Un in Vietnam. “Not going to do testing. So I trust him, and I take him at his word. I hope that’s true.”

The president also tweeted in May that he has “confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me.”

On Friday, Trump said he’s not concerned by North Korea’s latest missile test, and repeatedly downplayed the projectiles as “short-range” while touting his relationship with the North Korean leader.

Correction: An earlier version of this report incorrectly stated that a Defense Intelligence Agency estimate quoted by the Journal said that North Korea may have produced 12 nuclear weapons since the first summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore last year.

–This report was updated on July 29 at 11:54 a.m.