nuclear-news

Trump’s comments were among the clearest indications yet on why that summit, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, broke up without any agreement being reached. The future of further talks – and indeed, the future of North Korea’s promised denuclearization process – have been uncertain ever since. ………

What constitutes Yongbyon?

North Korea’s nuclear sites are necessarily shrouded in mystery. The secretive state is known to have two programs producing weapons-grade fissile materials – a processed plutonium-based program and a highly enriched uranium (HEU) based pr has been expanded since six-party denuclearization talks foundered in 2008.

There are two complicating factors. Firstly, the second program may be dispersed over multiple sites, and secondly, it is not entirely clear to researchers what or where the limits of Yongbyon are, which has been expanded since six-party denuclearization talks foundered in 2008.

The latter point suggests that it is not clear whether Kim, in his reported offer to dismantle Yongbyon, was referring to the facility itself, or to an extended complex of facilities in the Yongbyon area – which could, feasibly, explain the two sites Trump mentioned. ……

given Trump’s lack of detail and the speculation required to analyze it, one expert dismissed his televised comments entirely.

“I have no opinion as to those numbers, it is irrelevant,” Chun In-bum, a retired South Korean general, told Asia Times. “It is very difficult to know how many really credible nuclear facilities there are – I would not even venture to try to guess.”  https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/05/article/trump-clarifies-nuclear-gulf-between-us-north-korea/