WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A US study center on Monday found monitoring and maintenance work on 13 out of 20 missile bases operating in North Korea, raising questions about Pyongyang's seriousness in its promises to give up its nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.
In a report issued by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, researcher Joseph Bermudez said that maintenance work and minor improvements in infrastructure had been detected in some locations despite ongoing negotiations.
The sites listed in the Study Center report are scattered in remote and mountainous areas throughout North Korea and can be used to deploy ballistic missiles with the longest range of range believed to be capable of reaching anywhere in the United States.
"Rocket launchers are not launching facilities," Bermudez wrote. "The rockets can be fired from within the country in emergencies, but the operation procedures of the Korean People's Army require that rocket launchers be far from the bases and are located at launch sites that have been surveyed by Equipped for operation ".
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump pledged to work for nuclear disarmament at their historic summit in June in Singapore but the agreement lacked definition and negotiations made little progress afterwards.
Shortly after the summit, Trump wrote on Twitter, "North Korea is no longer a nuclear threat."
North Korea said it had "completed" its nuclear power and halted missile and nuclear tests earlier this year, but US and South Korean negotiators were not drawn from Pyongyang after a concrete announcement on the scale or scope of its nuclear program or promised to stop deploying its arsenal.
North Korea said it had closed the Bungi-Re nuclear testing site and the Sohai missile test plant.
The possibility of closing more sites and allowing international inspectors to watch if Washington took "similar action" has yet to show any signs.
Last week, North Korea canceled a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York, state media reported on Monday that the resumption of small-scale military exercises by South Korea and the United States was a violation of the current deal aimed at reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
