Images indicate North Korea halted dismantling of launch site: think tank

Satellite photos from last week indicate North Korea halted work to dismantle a missile engine test site in the first part of August, in spite of a promise to U.S. President Donald Trump at a June summit, a Washington think tank reported on Wednesday.

The 38 North project said commercial satellite imagery of the Sohae Satellite Launching Station taken on Aug. 16 indicated “no significant dismantlement activity” at either the site’s engine test stand or launch pad since Aug. 3.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month that reports that North Korea had started dismantling facilities at Sohae were consistent with a commitment North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made at a summit with Trump in Singapore on June 12.

The 38 North report said significant progress in tearing down the test stand had been made from July to early August, but added: “The components previously removed remain stacked on the ground.”

Reuters

There were other sites in NK that have shown no efforts being made to dismantle, and in fact were showing continuing work towards building fuel and missiles, but the Sohae site was used as an example that things were going according to the agreements. This article covers the images of that sole site having stopped dismantling efforts approximately 3 weeks ago.

This is not good news. Peace and prosperity is something we all want. However, knowing North Korea's propensity for lies and deceit as evidenced by history, it makes infantile the administration's premature calls of creating world peace, minting celebratory coins and calling for the Nobel.

It would have been wiser to sit tight and observe and see if the promises are kept and if the intentions were real; lauding oneself before any results show is increasingly looking like silly, self serving propaganda that it appeared to be.

Do we all want world peace? I bet the answer is yes. Do we want to be lied about it and riled up for nothing? I say no.

What worries me the most about this whole situation is what the backlash will be once Trump capitulates being lied to and does a 180 and starts calling for war, because his fragile ego was bruised.

a reply to: Kharron

But they're buds now.

(Ahh, two dictators in love... the path is never easy!)

Let me guess, Reuters has a man on the inside and this was not sent out as a 4am talking point.

How many times will they try and feed us the same drivel masquerading as news.

Just another hit piece. Tiresome.

P

originally posted by: pheonix358
Let me guess, Reuters has a man on the inside and this was not sent out as a 4am talking point.

How many times will they try and feed us the same drivel masquerading as news.

Just another hit piece. Tiresome.

P

Yeah, bad guess. The imagery came from commercial satellites and was analyzed by the website 38 North.

a reply to: Kharron


Well, at least Trump tried to be reasonable with Him.

What worries me the most about this whole situation is what the backlash will be once Trump capitulates being lied to and does a 180 and starts calling for war, because his fragile ego was bruised.

Yeah because, this is something the other Presidents just couldn't handle because they either didn't know how, or they thought it was a good idea that North Korea had Nuclear Capabilities. Either way, don't worry. We will have a Space Force to deal with it.

originally posted by: highvein
a reply to: Kharron


Well, at least Trump tried to be reasonable with Him.

What worries me the most about this whole situation is what the backlash will be once Trump capitulates being lied to and does a 180 and starts calling for war, because his fragile ego was bruised.

Yeah because, this is something the other Presidents just couldn't handle because they either didn't know how, or they thought it was a good idea that North Korea had Nuclear Capabilities. Either way, don't worry. We will have a Space Force to deal with it.

For the record, we've had Space Force since 1982. Someone just likes to make themself look good. Look how many Commanders it's had so far. Seventeen 3-star and 4-star generals in charge.

How is Space Force going to stop the war or causalities?

North Korea is in the midst of a near-famine with weather (drought) issues and food shortages. maybe they pulled some people/resources to help with that.

not to get off topic but when MSNBC and CNN are shut down by gummint decree, I'll concede that Trump is a dictator. till then it's just slander. shame on you.

originally posted by: Kharron

originally posted by: pheonix358
Let me guess, Reuters has a man on the inside and this was not sent out as a 4am talking point.

How many times will they try and feed us the same drivel masquerading as news.

Just another hit piece. Tiresome.

P

Yeah, bad guess. The imagery came from commercial satellites and was analyzed by the website 38 North.

That is what your basing it on? Did you know that if you know that if you take something that large apart you need to stack the materials that you take apart in piles, to make it more effecient at removing the materials?

You have to bring in a lot of material to deconstruct a large site, especially one that will be combined with nuclear facilities.

I think you are jumping the gun, but lets keep an eye on it in case your not.

originally posted by: Kharron

originally posted by: highvein
a reply to: Kharron


Well, at least Trump tried to be reasonable with Him.

What worries me the most about this whole situation is what the backlash will be once Trump capitulates being lied to and does a 180 and starts calling for war, because his fragile ego was bruised.

Yeah because, this is something the other Presidents just couldn't handle because they either didn't know how, or they thought it was a good idea that North Korea had Nuclear Capabilities. Either way, don't worry. We will have a Space Force to deal with it.

For the record, we've had Space Force since 1982. Someone just likes to make themself look good. Look how many Commanders it's had so far. Seventeen 3-star and 4-star generals in charge.

How is Space Force going to stop the war or causalities?

It was known as the Star Wars Program. I remember watching Reagan talk about it.
As to how it will stop the war or causalities, remember when North Korea had that "earthquake" at their test site?

a reply to: highvein

Are you hoping that NK will bend a knee? I personally think that such an assumption would be naive. That country has nothing to benefit from doing so. The economy of NK is doing better than ever and the people are still following the leader. If they give into our will than the people will not follow the “great leader”. Just keep that simple aspect in mind when you think about North Korea.

originally posted by: Kharron

However, knowing North Korea's propensity for lies and deceit as evidenced by history, it makes infantile the administration's premature calls of creating world peace, minting celebratory coins and calling for the Nobel.

Knowing the propensity of the US Government and MSM for lies and deceit, as evidenced by history, I don't believe a damn thing they say when they are pushing an agenda of economic sanctions followed by military action.

I'll take the UFO skeptic's approach: I'll believe it when they land a nuke on the White House lawn.

a reply to: Kharron

Ahem...

A Washington think tank? Really?

Think tanks, from an objective point of view, are rarely in the business of dealing with facts. They approach matters from the preferred bias position that their particular special interests would like. So I would rather see either a fully independent groups assessment of the data, or an assessment from someone whose motivations are clearly displayed, so that we can see all the reasons not to trust a word they say, without having to research them and their affiliations at all.

a reply to: TrueBrit
Call me an old cynic but I stopped believing anyone after WMD's were 45 minutes away from killing everyone in Britain.
All sides have an agenda and I don't have reason to trust either because I am just a peasant who isn't in the know.
Is lil Kim a despot to his people? It would seem so from most reports.
Is lil Kim a threat to the UK? I have no idea, but western governments tell me he is.

Apathy has gradually become the default state with me and international politics unfortunately.
As a peasant I can do little to change such developments.

If NK drops the ball and goes back to how they were, we are net zero. Meaning we lost nothing, and gained nothing. If they pick the ball back up and try to follow along with what they promised, everyone wins. So while some mouth breathers may cheer this as a Trump loss, it's not. It's just NK doing what they decided to do.

a reply to: network dude

Alt-left logic.

Blame Trump for everything, even for things are not his fault.

Good thing some people have critical sense.

Now imagine if Democrats were running the country... What a mess would that be.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Ahem... A Washington think tank? Really?

Many of these think tanks like to sell a narrative to get the real tanks in countries in question.

a reply to: CriticalStinker
Agreed, and it explains why it is impossible to know who to believe anymore.
Especially when one is a mere peasant such as myself.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

The thing is, by way of being here, on this site, we get more sources of information than any one nation, or any one demographic within a nation does. Of all the citizens of the world, denizens of this site have more access, to better quality data (albeit watered down over the years with heaping piles of financially motivated propaganda) than most regular people.

That puts us in a unique position. That position is as follows...

We can, if we put our heads to it, see the wood for the trees. One of the things that is plain as day, is that we cannot trust our governments or their intelligence agencies, to tell us the truth about what is happening in the world and who is responsible for it at the root, and any examination of the reasons for that suggests that the main driver for the tendency to lie on the part of those groups, is that they, our governments, are the major drivers of misery world wide.

Now, Kim being a dictator and a totally garbage human being is pretty much beyond any doubt in my mind... But that does not mean that I can believe in a threat to the UK from him, and it also does not mean that I support any action against North Korea, unless I am permitted access to information from clean sources, which is PROVEN to be accurate, rather than being based on suspicion and the word of people who by nature of their manner of employment, cannot be trusted to tell me the truth.

If we know we cannot trust these people, then we know something else. We need to vote in a manner which promotes governance by the people, for the people, and without the necessity to be propagandised at. We know that we need to root and branch destroy the infrastructure which permits our nation to affect world affairs, until we can install a head of those services who is so morally and ethically golden, that no amount of riches could dissuade them from only acting in matters, in a way that EVERY good Briton would not only agree with, but have suggested themselves. We need to know what our intelligence agencies know, we need to know what they do, we need to be the people who sign off on it or not according to our principles, and we need to be involved with our own security in that manner. We cannot permit our government to handle it, because every time we try that, we get led down the garden path, for the purpose of lining someones pockets.

This cannot go on. The only way to ensure the moral and ethical perfection of our actions on the world stage, or at least ensure that they are as morally and ethically perfect as possible, is to ensure that nothing happens with any of our agencies, unless we, the people, say it may, on a case by case basis. As a people, we need to be where the buck stops, because if any small number of people are permitted to take that responsibility, they will abuse their positions in order to make money from us and our fears, as well as the resources of nations we have no right messing with.

If anything, the manipulation of public opinion with regard to war and intelligence operations, has not made me apathetic, it has instead inspired me to be even more driven, to bring about one day a fully distributed democracy, in which the people are the government, where there is no parliament as such, just a bunch of people doing as the people command through weekly electronic balloting on policy, rather than voting for leaders every five years. That would be a start. If the people are the sole commanding force in this country, then we can begin the process of destroying the power structures that have kept us docile, and harmed the world immeasurably. We can finally take responsibility for our own security, and make informed choices about whether we support an action or whether a given nation poses us a threat.

That is something which must come to pass, it is the only future for our nation, for governance world wide in fact, which has any result other than a continuation of the cycle of lies and mass murder that has kept the rich untouchables in caviar and champagne, and the rest of us in various stages of destitution or apathy. There is no future for the human race, which includes governance by the few over the many. Time has come, well past in fact, for the people to become their own masters.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Exactly.

Many of them are owned or financed by people with interests in the arms and mineral resource worlds, not directly of course, through intermediaries and lobby groups, foundations and trusts for this and that. The shadows cast by think tanks and their backers are deep, broad, and dark. No matter which of them is involved, taking their word on face value is foolhardy. Sometimes a think tank will come out with something that makes sense under independent review, but all too often its simply the case that someone paid them to make the best effort at advocating for a totally unsupportable position.

a reply to: TrueBrit

It doesn't help they didn't say which think tank it is so we can do some digging. That is surprising of Reuters, unless I missed it buried in the article.