The Borneo Post

N. Korea tests rocket launchers, tactical weapons

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SEOUL: North Korea’s state media said yesterday that leader Kim Jong Un had overseen a rocket and tactical guided weapons test, after the drill Saturday raised concerns Pyongyang was escalating provocatio­ns with US nuclear negotiatio­ns deadlocked.

The North last carried out a missile test in November 2017, before a rapid diplomatic rapprochem­ent saw tensions ease on the peninsula and a series of summits.

A return to missile launches would be likely to infuriate US President Donald Trump, but the North’s official KCNA news agency shied away from the term in its report, saying Kim had ordered a ‘strike drill’ involving ‘ long-range multiple rocket launchers’ – which are not targeted by UN sanctions resolution­s – and unspecifie­d

Kim Jong Un fully realizes the great economic potential of North Korea, will do nothing to interfere or end it. Donald Trump

‘tactical guided weapons’. Seoul’s defence ministry said Sunday an analysis of the launch indicated Pyongyang had tested “240-mm and 300-mm multiple rocket launchers and a new type of tactical guided weapons with a range of around 70 to 240 kilometres”.

The United States and North Korea have been at loggerhead­s since the collapse of a Trump-Kim summit in February, when the two sides clashed over sanctions and the extent of Pyongyang’s concession­s on its atomic arsenal. But despite the latest sabre-rattling from Pyongyang, Trump insisted that a breakthrou­gh was possible.

“Kim Jong Un fully realises the great economic potential of North Korea, will do nothing to interfere or end it,” Trump tweeted.

“He also knows that I am with him, does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen!” The US leader did not elaborate on Kim’s promise.

During Saturday’s drill Kim urged his troops to remember “the iron truth that genuine peace and security are ensured and guaranteed only by powerful strength”, KCNA said.

The state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Sunday carried 16 photos of the weapons test on its front page, including a picture of a grim-looking Kim clutching his binoculars in an observatio­n post as well as several images of projectile­s shooting skywards.

Trump proclaimed that the North Korean nuclear threat was over after the two sides’ historic first summit in Singapore in June, when Kim pledged to work towards “complete denucleari­sation of the Korean peninsula”.

The two have since disagreed over what that means, but Trump has insisted the leaders remain close even after their follow-up meeting in Vietnam broke up without a deal or even a joint statement, and that Kim would maintain his moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests.

But with negotiatio­ns lagging, the North appears to be testing the US while staying below that threshold.

The Saturday drill followed last month’s test-firing of very shortrange tactical weapons, and came days after a senior North Korean diplomat chastised US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for making “foolish and dangerous” comments during nuclear talks.

Analysts said Pyongyang appears intent on raising pressure on Washington.

“Kim wants to ensure the world knows it is upset with the US hardline stance on denucleari­sation and will not bow to external pressure,” said Scott Seaman of the Eurasia Group.

But Ankit Panda of the Federation of American Scientists stressed that the projectile launch “does not violate Kim Jong Un’s self-imposed missile-testing moratorium”, which “only applied to interconti­nental range ballistic missiles ”.

Even so, a statement from Seoul’s presidenti­al Blue House said it was “greatly concerned”, calling it a violation of a military agreement signed by both Koreas last year.

 ??  ?? This picture shows rocket launchers firing during a test of weapons in an undisclose­d location in North Korea.
This picture shows rocket launchers firing during a test of weapons in an undisclose­d location in North Korea.
 ?? — AFP photos ?? Kim supervisin­g a ‘strike drill’, a test of long-range multiple rocket launchers and tactical guided weapons, into the East Sea in an undisclose­d location in North Korea.
— AFP photos Kim supervisin­g a ‘strike drill’, a test of long-range multiple rocket launchers and tactical guided weapons, into the East Sea in an undisclose­d location in North Korea.

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