Jonathan Cristol is a Research Fellow in the Levermore Global Scholars Program at Adelphi University and Senior Fellow at the Center for Civic Engagement at Bard College. Follow him: @jonathancristol. The views expressed in this commentary are his own.

(CNN) On Wednesday, the North Korea watchers at 38 North released satellite imagery that shows North Korea making improvements to the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center. While this report is unsettling, it is not at all surprising.

More unsettling than the report is the possibility that President Donald Trump believed that the North Korean nuclear threat could be solved by a handshake. In the immediate aftermath of the Singapore Summit, Trump said that, "There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea." That statement was false, and the North Korean activity at Yongbyon proves it.

But North Korean nuclear activity is not in violation of the terms of the summit, since Trump and Kim Jong Un did not sign paperwork regarding immediate and complete denuclearization. Instead, they signed an agreement that includes a vague statement that North Korea will "work toward" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Jonathan Cristol

So far, the Trump administration is the only side moving in that direction -- by agreeing to suspend joint military exercises with South Korea in exchange for vague promises. The improvements at Yongbyon, however, do not even violate Kim's vague promise, which was only to stop nuclear and ballistic missile testing.

But, more importantly, Kim has little incentive to cease nuclear activity, and for that he can thank the incoherent strategy of Trump. The "maximum pressure" campaign of ever-tightening, crippling sanctions against North Korea is all but forgotten by Washington, and even Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says, "I am not going to put a timeline on [denuclearization]."

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