N Korea missile bases outed in report undermines Trump

Bloomberg

Thirteen undeclared North Korean missile operating bases were identified in a new report, undermining the Trump administration’s claims that its outreach to Pyongyang is making progress in getting Kim Jong-un’s regime to give up its nuclear weapons programme.
The 13 sites are among an estimated 20 bases, small and dispersed across the country, that are believed to have underground facilities containing mobile launchers that can be quickly dispersed to other locations, according to the report from Beyond Parallel, a group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Although not designed as launch sites, the bases could be used to launch short-range as well as intercontinental ballistic missiles.
“The dispersed nature, small size of operating bases, and tactics and doctrine employed by ballistic missile units provide the best chances for their survival given the KPA’s technology and capabilities,” according to the report, using an acronym for the Korean People’s Army.
The existence of the bases — which presumably would have to be declared and then dismantled under the US goal of North Korean “denuclearisation” — suggests that Pyongyang’s previous efforts to dismantle known missile launch sites or nuclear facilities had little impact on its nuclear programme.
The report comes as talks between the US and North Korea hit another snag last week, with a New York meeting between Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and the top negotiator from Pyongyang cancelled at the
last minute.
President Donald Trump — who’s cited North Korea’s yearlong freeze on nuclear weapons tests and ballistic missile launches as signs of progress — chalked up the change to a scheduling conflict, adding, “We think it’s going fine, we’re in no rush.” Senator Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement that Trump was “getting played by Kim Jong-un.”
“We cannot have another summit with North Korea — not with President Trump, not with the secretary of state — unless and until the Kim regime takes concrete, tangible actions to halt and roll back its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes,” Markey.
US and South Korea officials played down the report’s
findings, suggesting intelligence agencies were aware of the
facilities.
“I don’t comment on matters that may or not pertain to intelligence,” US National Security Adviser John Bolton told reporters on the sidelines of regional summits in Singapore.