Tuesday, September 1, 2026

"North Korea-U.S. talks possible at any time"... NIS secures North Korean missile blueprints

Input
2026-09-01 15:14:51
Updated
2026-09-01 15:14:51
President of the United States Donald Trump shakes hands with Kim Jong Un, President of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, at the Panmunjom truce village in the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on June 30, 2019.
AP Newsis [Financial News] The National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported to the National Assembly on the 1st that a summit between Donald Trump, President of the United States, and Kim Jong Un, President of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, could take place at any time. The NIS also said there have been no contacts yet for a four-way summit involving South Korea, North Korea, the United States and China, as proposed by President Lee Jae-myung. Earlier, Kim Yo Jong, a senior official of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), dismissed any contact between the North Korean and U.
S. leaders on the 19th of last month, saying it was "something we know nothing about at all. " At a closed plenary session of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee held that day, officials from the NIS attended and briefed lawmakers on their assessment of the North Korea-U.
S. summit and the proposed four-way talks, the ruling and opposition parties' executive secretaries said. Regarding a North Korea-U.
S. summit, the NIS said it should be viewed as "possible at any time" and noted signs of dialogue.
However, it added that no concrete evidence of direct contact between the two sides has been confirmed. The NIS also said, in connection with the four-way talks on ending the Korean War that President Lee proposed to the North in his National Liberation Day of Korea address on Aug.
15, that "there have been no dialogue contacts at the NIS level. " Meanwhile, the NIS reported that it has secured and is analyzing internal documents from the WPK as well as blueprints for North Korean ballistic missile programs.
It did not disclose how it obtained the missile blueprints or the source of the materials. Until now, South Korea's intelligence authorities had largely limited themselves to assessing North Korea's technological level by recovering missile debris and reverse-engineering it.
In addition, the NIS said it also prevented the leak of blueprints for a new reactor and photographs of the engine of the KUH-1 Surion helicopter.
[email protected] Kim Kyung-soo Reporter