Kim Jong-Un Visits Key Missile Site, Orders ’Higher Modernization Plan’

By Staff, Agencies

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered a “higher modernization plan” for the country's main ballistic missile factory during a visit to several facilities and factories, shortly after he suspended denuclearization talks with the United States.

The North’s official news agency KCNA reported on Saturday that Kim visited several factories that were used to build ballistic missile launchers and other weapons. The report did not specify when the visits took place.

Among the sites Kim visited was the site the so-called February 8 General Machine Factory, which Pyongyang has used to manufacture launchers for ballistic missiles.

The machine factory was also the site of a July 28, 2017 inter-continental ballistic missile [ICBM] launch personally observed by Kim.

“Even though the factory has made remarkable progress as against the past, we should not be contented with this,” the leader was quoted by KCNA as saying.

A researcher at the US-based James Martin Center for nonproliferation studies (CNS) described the site as “the heart of North Korea’s defense industry.”

“These are the kind of visits we saw in 2016 and 2017 as North Korea moved toward ICBM testing,” researcher Jeffrey Lewis told Reuters.

Back in January CNS listed the plant in a report as one of several sites visited by the North Korean leader in the past.

Pyongyang did not fully disclose the location or the purpose of the site, according to Lewis.

The development came after Kim declared last month that he suspended the denuclearization talks with Washington until it changes its "arbitrary and dishonest" stance.

US National Security Adviser John Bolton has ruled out a change of position.

Bolton calls for the resumption of denuclearization talks on the same terms that North Korea has denounced as "arbitrary and dishonest."

At the same time, he called for the military to boost its strike capability and “keep full combat posture to cope with any emergency.”

The call for "full combat posture" came a day after he observed the test fire of two long-range ballistic weapons that were initially presumed to be short range missiles.