The New York Times is lying to its readers about the commitments of an adversarial state. It did not learn a single lesson from its fake reporting that led the Iraq War. It again furthers hostile aggression.
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In a piece published today, In North Korea, Missile Bases Suggest a Great Deception, the paper lies about North Korea's commitments:
North Korea is moving ahead with its ballistic missile program at 16 hidden bases that have been identified in new commercial satellite images, a network long known to American intelligence agencies but left undiscussed as President Trump claims to have neutralized the North’s nuclear threat.
The satellite images suggest that the North has been engaged in a great deception: It has offered to dismantle a major launching site — a step it began, then halted — while continuing to make improvements at more than a dozen others that would bolster launches of conventional and nuclear warheads.
There is no North Korean deception. It agreed to dismantle a missile test site, not an operative "launching site", and it agreed to a moratorium of nuclear and missile testing. Nowhere has it made any commitment to stop productions or deployments of missiles.
The Singapore Declaration Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump signed says nothing about ballistic missiles. It agrees on four step to be taken in sequence: 1. establish new US-DPRK relations, 2. build a lasting and stable peace regime in all of Korea, 3. support of the Panmunjom Declaration between North and South Korea, 4. North Korea commits "to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula".
There is no public or secret commitment by North Korea to stop its production of ballistic missiles just as there is not commitment by the United States to stop its continuing arms buildup.
There is in fact the opposite. North Korea openly said multiple times that it would increase its ballistic missile capacity. In May 2017 Chairman Kim Jong-un ordered to start mass production of the medium range Pukguksong-2 (Poseidon-2) missile:
[The KCNA state news agency] quoted Kim as saying the Pukguksong-2 met all the required technical specifications so should now be mass-produced and deployed to the Korean People's Army strategic battle unit.
In August 2017 he ordered to increase the production of solid fuel missiles.
Kim visited the North Korean Chemical Material Institute of the Academy of Defence Science recently, according to a statement from the government-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“He instructed the institute to produce more solid-fuel rocket engines and rocket warhead tips by further expanding engine production process and the production capacity of rocket warhead tips and engine jets by carbon/carbon compound material,” the statement read.
At the beginning of 2018 Kim Jong-un again publicly ordered to expand ballistic missile production. Those were not empty words. By July 2018 the expansion of a known missile factory was visible in publicly available satellite pictures.
Foreign Affairs noted that these were legitimate steps, not deceptions:
This activity does not suggest Kim is being duplicitous or is “cheating.” He never promised to stop producing nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles. In fact, quite the opposite. In his 2018 New Year’s Day address, Kim directed North Korea’s “nuclear weapons research sector and the rocket industry” to “mass-produce nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles.” It is clear now that Kim is following through on what he said he would do.
The NY Times piece peddles a lame analysis of some satellite pictures by the Center for Strategic and International Security (CSIS, funded by oil, weapons and banks). The analysis only describes one old missile site that was developed over decades and saw no recent changes:
First phase construction of the Sakkanmol base began sometime between 1991 and 1993 using specialized engineering troops from KPA Unit No. 583 […] The first phase was likely partially completed by September 1999 when it was reported that “27 (Scud missiles) were deployed to the Togol area (Sakkanmol) of North Hwanghae to form a missile regiment.” […] Beginning about 2004, the construction of an unidentified military facility with administration, barrack, housing, and support facilities began along the valley leading to the Sakkanmol base. […] Sometime in 2010 to 2011, a second phase of construction activity began at Sakkanmol that included the addition of barracks, vehicle maintenance and storage facilities, greenhouses, and a number of small structures throughout the base.
The CSIS report is about a well established and well known base for short range missiles. The base saw no recent changes. Why is the New York Times making "deception" nonsense out of it if not to sabotage the efforts by the U.S. president to come to peace with North Korea?
There is another deception in the Sanger/Broad piece. It quotes a State Department statement without pointing out that it is an obvious lie:
A State Department spokesman responded to the findings with a written statement suggesting that the government believed the sites must be dismantled: “President Trump has made clear that should Chairman Kim follow through on his commitments, including complete denuclearization and the elimination of ballistic missile programs, a much brighter future lies ahead for North Korea and its people.”
Nowhere has North Korea made such commitments. Is it the task of the "free press" to repeat the lies offered by the State Department? Is its task to offer its own lies on top of those false statements?
In 2002 the New York Times published dozens of false reports about alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. No such weapons exited. That reporting led to the catastrophic war on Iraq. The Times scapegoated its reporter Judith Miller to exculpate itself. But as today's report shows it has learned absolutely nothing from it. It is now trying to sabotage the one and only Trump initiative that might lead to a less dangerous world. Achieving peace in Korea is complicate enough. Additional hurdles thrown up through misleading reporting make it more difficult.
Currently the talks between the United States and North Korea are again on hold as the U.S. demands to proceed with point 4 of the Singapore Declaration, denuclearization, before delivering on point 1, 2 and 3 by lifting the current sanctions against North Korea and by signing a peace agreement. The government of South Korea is working to bring the talks back on track.
Peddling satellite pictures of old North Korean bases and deceiving ones readers about its commitments make war on the Korean peninsula more likely. It is not only deceptive but nefarious.
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