N. Korea conducts another ‘crucial’ test at long-range rocket launch site
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Saturday that it successfully performed another “crucial test” at its long-range rocket launch site that will further strengthen its nuclear deterrent.
The test — the second at the facility in a week, according to North Korea’s Academy of Defense Science — possibly involved technologies to improve intercontinental ballistic missiles that could potentially reach the continental United States.
In a separate statement, Pak Jong Chon, chief of the Korean People’s Army’s general staff, asserted that North Korea has built up “tremendous power” and that the findings from the recent tests would be used to develop new weapons to allow the country to “definitely and reliably” counter U.S. nuclear threats.
The North in recent weeks has been dialing up pressure to coax major concessions from the Trump administration as it approaches an end-of-year deadline set by leader Kim Jong Un to salvage faltering nuclear negotiations.
The Academy of Defense Science did not specify what was tested on Friday. Just days earlier, the North said it conducted a “very important test” at the site on the country’s northwestern coast, prompting speculation that it involved a new engine for either an ICBM or a space launch vehicle.
The testing activity and defiant statements suggest that the North is preparing to do something to provoke the United States if Washington doesn’t back down and make concessions to ease sanctions and pressure on Pyongyang in deadlocked nuclear negotiations.
An unnamed spokesman for the academy said scientists received warm congratulations from members of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee who attended the test, which lasted from 10:41 to 10:48 p.m. Friday at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground, where the North has conducted satellite launches and liquidfuel missile engine tests in recent years.
The spokesman said the successful outcome of the latest test, in addition to the one on Dec. 7, “will be applied to further bolster up the reliable strategic nuclear deterrent of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” referring to North Korea’s formal name.
“We should be ready to cope with political and military provocations of the hostile forces and be familiar with both dialogue and confrontation,” Pak said in a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.“Our army is fully ready to thoroughly carry out any decision of the supreme leader with action . ... U.S. and other hostile forces will spend the year-end in peace only when they hold off any words and deeds rattling us.”
Kim Dong-yub, a former South Korean military officer and currently an analyst from Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said the North mentioning its nuclear deterrent makes it clear it tested a new engine for an ICBM, not a satellite-launch vehicle.
Starbucks apologized to two sheriff’s deputies in California and said it would carry out an internal investigation after complaints by the sheriff that the coffee retailer’s employees refused to serve the officers, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The alleged mistreatment of the Riverside County sheriff’s deputies took place Thursday at a Starbucks near the campus of the University of California, Riverside.
The officers, who were in uniform, stood at the counter for about five minutes without being served and eventually decided to leave, according to statements from Starbucks and social media posts by Sheriff Chad Bianco.
“There is simply no excuse for how two Riverside deputies were ignored for nearly 5 minutes at our store on Thursday evening,” a Starbucks spokesman said in a statement. “We take full responsibility for any intentional or unintentional disrespect shown to law enforcement on whom we depend every day to keep our stores and communities safe.”
The Riverside incident marks the third time this year that Starbucks has been accused of disrespecting law enforcement officers. In July, six officers in Tempe, Arizona, said a barista asked them to move away from a customer who had complained that their presence was making him nervous. Starbucks apologized to the officers.
In November, a police chief in Oklahoma complained after a Starbucks employee labeled cups for several officers with the word “PIG.” Starbucks again apologized and fired the employee.
Bianco referred to the prior incidents Friday, writing on Twitter, “The anti police culture repeatedly displayed by Starbucks employees must end.”