N Korea still building at nuclear site

North Korea is carrying out rapid improvements to its nuclear research facility, a monitor said yesterday, despite declaring a commitment to denuclearisation of the peninsula at the Singapore summit.

The nuclear-armed North's leader Kim Jong Un promised to "work toward" the goal at a landmark summit in the city-state earlier this month with US President Donald Trump.

But the Singapore meeting failed to clearly define denuclearisation or produce a specific timeline towards dismantling the North's atomic weapons arsenal.

 Recent satellite imagery showed that not only were operations continuing at present at the North's main Yongbyon nuclear site, it was also carrying out infrastructure works, said the respected 38 North website.

It noted "continued operations" at the North's uranium enrichment plant and several new installations at the site -- including an engineering office and a driveway to a building housing a nuclear reactor.

But continued operations at the site "should not be seen as having any relationship with North Korea's pledge to denuclearise", it added.

Nuclear officials could be "expected to proceed with business as usual until specific orders are issued from Pyongyang", it said.

The North last month blew up its aged but only nuclear test site at Punggye-ri -- where it had staged six atomic tests -- in a show of goodwill before the summit.