South Korea's army revealed on Monday that it is keeping an eye on North Korea after satellite images show that Pyongyang had started to rebuild its nuclear facilities again. The international community was alarmed by the ongoing activities at the site and feared that Kim Jong Un might order a new long-range missile launch.
AFP via Yahoo News explained that any launch made by North Korea will derail the denuclearization talks and will definitely create chaos especially now that Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un's recent summit in Vietnam had failed. The two leaders did not reach a deal so NoKor could change its mind and resume its nuclear projects once anew.
Due to the developments observed in North Korea's nuclear plants, South Korea revealed that it has been monitoring the movements in the facilities in order immediately detect any attempt for a missile launch.
"We are closely tracking and looking into all activity for possible scenarios including a missile launch across the border, in close coordination with the US," Kim Joon Rak, the spokesman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated.
With the recent observation on North Korea, the U.S. wants the government to treat the situation as a big deal because there is a big risk in the situation. At any rate, the activities in the launching facilities were observed after Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un failed to sign an agreement during their second meeting.
The summit collapsed because the U.S. president said that Kim Jong Un asked for the sanctions to be completely scrapped in exchange for the dismantling of NoKor's Yongbyon nuclear complex. After the talks, it was reported that the North Korean leader only asked for the partial lifting of sanctions as opposed to Trump's claim that he asked for the total dropping of the sanctions.
With the unsuccessful talks, South China Morning Post quoted senior researcher at Sejong Institute, Cheong Seong Chang, as saying: "The North could be trying to show the US it can always turn back to aggressive posture by rebuilding missile sites in order to gain leverage in future talks, but without actually firing a missile or rocket."
He added, "It is hard to rule out the possibility of a rocket launch at the Sohae station at this point as North Korea has proven time and time again it can do unexpected things."
Despite the fact that it seems NoKor is threatening the international community again, a professor at the Kyungnam University opined that Kim Jong Un is only trying to send a message.
"This is North Korea's classic brinkmanship on display again," Prof. Lim Eul Chul said. "The North's intention is clear. It wants an early resumption of talks with the US, but on better terms."
