--- title: North Korea Is Still Making Fuel For Nuclear Weapons: Pompeo description: North Korea has continued producing fuel for nuclear weapons despite a pledge to denuclearize, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said canonical: https://time.com/5349407/north-korea-fissile-material-mike-pompeo/ author: Eli Meixler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-07-26T05:27:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:57:35.930Z article:section: Politics og:title: North Korea Is Still Making Fuel For Nuclear Weapons: Pompeo og:description: But the Secretary of State said that "progess is happening" og:url: https://time.com/5349407/north-korea-fissile-material-mike-pompeo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7e0ecde601c02db4/69893656929fadfa05bf12dc/gettyimages-1005395842.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: U.S. Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo Testifies Before The Senate Foreign Relations Committee og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: North Korea Is Still Making Fuel For Nuclear Weapons: Pompeo twitter:description: But the Secretary of State said that "progess is happening" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7e0ecde601c02db4/69893656929fadfa05bf12dc/gettyimages-1005395842.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # North Korea Is Still Producing 'Fissile Material' Despite a Pledge to Denuclearize, Mike Pompeo Says by [Eli Meixler](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Jul 26, 2018 5:27 AM UTC  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington D.C. on July 25, 2018. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington D.C. on July 25, 2018.Yasin Ozturk—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images by [Eli Meixler](https://time.com/author/eli/) ## Eli Meixler Jul 26, 2018 5:27 AM UTC North Korea has continued [producing fuel](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa/north-korea-making-bomb-fuel-despite-denuclearization-pledge-pompeo-idUSKBN1KF2QT) for nuclear weapons despite leader Kim Jong Un’s support for denuclearization at a summit with President Donald Trump last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a Senate hearing Wednesday. Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Pompeo said that North Korea “\[continues\] to produce fissile material” in response to a question by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, Reuters reports. Pompeo declined to address further questions about North Korea’s weapons program, including whether the country is still pursuing [submarine-launched](http://time.com/4467989/north-korea-submarine-missiles-slbm/) ballistic missiles, in the public setting. Pompeo appeared before the committee for a [wide-ranging hearing](http://time.com/5348987/pompeo-senate-trump-helsinki/) that also addressed the Trump administration’s response to Russian election interference, President Trump’s [meeting with Putin](http://time.com/5340050/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-summit-helsinki-analysis/) in Helsinki, and [tensions with Iran](http://time.com/5345601/iran-trump-rouhani-historic-consequences/). The Secretary of State defended the administration’s progress since the [landmark ](http://time.com/5309069/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-meet-summit/)June 12 Singapore summit, saying the U.S. was pursuing “patient diplomacy” to persuade North Korea to abandon its weapons program, “but we will not let this drag out to no end,” he said. “Progress is happening. We need Chairman Kim Jong Un to follow through on his commitments made in Singapore,” Pompeo said [according](https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/north-korea-is-continuing-to-produce-nuclear-bomb-fuel-pompeo) to Agence-France Presse. But some diplomats charge [little gains have been made](http://time.com/5333837/donald-trump-north-korea-kim-jong-un-month/) since the summit. North Korea lashed out at the administration’s “gangster-like” demands following a [visit by Pompeo](http://time.com/5332684/mike-pompeo-north-korea/) to Pyongyang earlier this month. Though Kim [signed an accord](http://time.com/5309425/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-summit-document-full-text/) at the Singapore summit “to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” experts have warned that the historic adversaries may differ on [what “denuclearization” means](http://time.com/5259353/north-korean-kim-jong-un-denuclearization-long-shot/) in practice. **Read more**: [_Why North Korean Denuclearization Is Still a Long Shot_](http://time.com/5259353/north-korean-kim-jong-un-denuclearization-long-shot/) Still, satellite images revealed that North Korea recently began [dismantling](http://time.com/5346555/north-korea-sohae-launch-pad/) a key satellite and missile facility in a possible “first step” toward honoring agreements made in Singapore, North Korea monitoring group 38 North said earlier this week. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5349407/north-korea-fissile-material-mike-pompeo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5349407/north-korea-fissile-material-mike-pompeo/"},"headline":"North Korea Is Still Producing 'Fissile Material' Despite a Pledge to Denuclearize, Mike Pompeo Says","datePublished":"2018-07-26T05:27:02.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:57:35.930Z","description":"North Korea has continued producing fuel for nuclear weapons despite Kim Jong Un's support for denuclearization","url":"https://time.com/5349407/north-korea-fissile-material-mike-pompeo/","keywords":["Foreign Policy","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7e0ecde601c02db4/69893656929fadfa05bf12dc/gettyimages-1005395842.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eli Meixler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eli/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7e0ecde601c02db4/69893656929fadfa05bf12dc/gettyimages-1005395842.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo Testifies Before The Senate Foreign Relations Committee","caption":"U.S. Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo Testifies Before The Senate Foreign Relations Committee","creditText":"Yasin Ozturk—Anadolu Agency/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/foreign-policy/","name":"Foreign Policy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5349407/north-korea-fissile-material-mike-pompeo/","name":"North Korea Is Still Producing 'Fissile Material' Despite a Pledge to Denuclearize, Mike Pompeo Says"}}]}] ```