Secretary of State Mike Pompeo refused to say if North Korea is building new nuclear-capable missiles during his testimony in front of Congress last week, but it looks like someone in the intelligence community has made that call for him.
Intelligence officials who spoke to the Washington Post say they have evidence that North Korea is building new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at one of their largest research facilities.
Moreover, officials say they've intercepted North Korean communications making it clear that fooling Trump is their whole plan.
Newly obtained evidence, including satellite photos taken in recent weeks, indicates that work is underway on at least one and possibly two liquid-fueled ICBMs at a large research facility in Sanumdong, on the outskirts of Pyongyang, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe classified intelligence. [...]
Senior North Korean officials have discussed their intention to deceive Washington about the number of nuclear warheads and missiles they have, as well as the types and numbers of facilities, and to rebuff international inspectors, according to intelligence gathered by U.S. agencies. Their strategy includes potentially asserting that they have fully denuclearized by declaring and disposing of 20 warheads while retaining dozens more.
Fooling Trump is a good (read: easy) idea, but it's probably not even necessary.
One doesn't have to fool Trump if Trump has no interest in telling the truth or admitting his failures. As much as he has stated otherwise, the fact is Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un did not result in a meaningful agreement to disarm.
It seems likely that the North will eventually drop the pretense and openly upgrade their capabilities, and possibly resume tests, once they've concluded that Trump is beyond the point of even pretending to care. That's not necessarily much of a prediction because that's more or less what has happened over the last several decades, but previous presidents never lied to the world by asserting that North Korea had agreed to disarm.
That future Trump resort and casino in Pyongyang won't build itself.