Christmas gifts from Kim: new missiles and old insults
North Korea conducted a second large-scale suspected rocket engine test in less than a week at the weekend, bolstering fears that it is planning a return to firing long-range nuclear-capable missiles.
The prospect of a Christmas crisis over the Korean peninsula – bringing relations with America to their lowest ebb in two years – deepened as the north hailed the test as strengthening its nuclear deterrent.
A senior Pyongyang official recently threatened
America with an unwelcome ‘‘Christmas gift’’ as Kim Jong-un, the north’s leader, escalates pressure on Washington to meet his ultimatum to ease economic sanctions.
Amid a barrage of threats and counter-threats, Donald Trump and senior Pyongyang officials have also revived the insults of ‘‘Rocket Man’’ and ‘‘dotard’’ they exchanged during the last crisis in 2017.
North Korean officials have also stressed that the country has ‘‘nothing more to lose’’ and warned of ‘‘catastrophic consequences’’ should America escalate tensions further.
In a further sign that Kim is planning something, the north has convened a rare Workers’ Party plenum for ‘‘late December’’. Such meetings are normally staged to rubber-stamp a new policy from the top. And then on January 1, Kim will give his annual new year address when he traditionally outlines his goals and priorities for the 12 months ahead.
The north has not specified what it has been testing. But international weapons experts believe that both operations involved large new rocket engines that could power a space launch or an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
‘‘The research successes being registered by us in defence science one after another recently will be applied to further bolstering up the reliable strategic nuclear deterrent of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,’’ said a spokesman for its Academy of Defence Science.
The test was held at the Sohae launch site, an important facility near the Chinese border that Kim announced he was dismantling before his first summit with Trump in Singapore last year, but then later quietly rebuilt.
– Sunday Times