N.Korea 'Suspected of Hiding Nuclear Facilities'

U.S. intelligence authorities have warned that there is evidence of North Korea trying to hide its nuclear facilities prior to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to North Korea this week for follow-up denuclearization talks.

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has "concluded that North Korea does not intend to fully surrender its nuclear stockpile, and instead is considering ways to conceal the number of weapons it has and secret production facilities," the Washington Post reported last Saturday.

"The evidence, collected in the wake of the June 12 summit in Singapore, points to preparations to deceive the United States about the number of nuclear warheads in North Korea's arsenal as well as the existence of undisclosed facilities used to make fissile material for nuclear bombs," it wrote.

The daily added some officials "have for at least a year believed that the number of warheads is about 65, as reported last year by the Washington Post. But North Korean officials are suggesting that they declare far fewer."

"There's no evidence that they are decreasing stockpiles, or that they have stopped their production," NBC News also quoted one U.S. official as saying. "There is absolutely unequivocal evidence that they are trying to deceive the U.S."