UN experts say North Korea still modernizing nuclear arsenal
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea has modernized its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles by flaunting United Nations sanctions and continues to seek material and technology overseas for its arsenal, U.N. experts said.
The panel of experts monitoring sanctions on the northeast Asian nation said in a report sent to Security Council members Monday that Kim Jong Un’s government has also produced fissile material — an essential ingredient for producing nuclear weapons — and maintained its nuclear facilities.
“It displayed new short-range, medium-range, submarine-launched and intercontinental ballistic missile systems at military parades,“ the experts said. “It announced preparation for testing and production of new ballistic missile warheads and, development of tactical nuclear weapons ... and upgraded its ballistic missile infrastructure.“
The Security Council has imposed increasingly tough sanctions on North Korea since its first test explosion of a nuclear device in 2006. It has banned most of the country's exports and severely limited its imports, trying to pressure Pyongyang into abandoning its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
But the report’s summary, obtained by The Associated Press, makes clear North Korea remains able to evade sanctions and develop its weapons with the illicitly import of refined petroleum, access to international banking channels and “malicious cyber activities.”
The arsenal of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un escalated to a major threat to the United States following tests in 2017 that included a detonation of a purported thermonuclear warhead and flight tests demonstrating its ICBMs could reach deep in the American mainland.
A year later, Kim initiated diplomacy with South Korea and then-President Donald Trump that derailed in 2019 when the Americans rejected...