North Korea launches defiant missile tests amid virus lockdown

North Korea said “reckless remarks” by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made it clear Washington had no intention of resuming nuclear talks and warned that it was now compelled to pay back “the pains the US has imposed on our people”.

After a teleconference of foreign ministers of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations last week, Mr Pompeo said the international community must remain united in urging North Korea to return to nuclear talks and in continuing to apply pressure on its nuclear and missile programs. Mr Pompeo’s remarks showed the US had no strategy to stop “a countdown of confrontation”, North Korea said in a statement attributed to its new Foreign Ministry department director general in charge of negotiations with Washington.

The statement was issued as North Korea hailed a test of

“super large” rocket launchers, just hours after the South condemned the state as “inappropriate” for pursing tests amid the global coronavirus outbreak.

On Sunday, South Korea said two short-range missiles had been fired – the latest in a flurry of tests this month.

The statement from North Korea said Mr Pompeo’s comments “seriously impaired the signboard of dialogue put up by the US president as a decoy to buy time and create the environment favourable for himself”. It referred to a recent personal letter that US president Donald Trump sent to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which North Korea said was aimed at maintaining good relations and offering cooperation in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

The statement did not say what action North Korea would take. But it said it would be designed to repay the US for suffering it had inflicted on North Korea in an apparent reference to American-led sanctions the North said had stifled its economy.

In late December, Mr Kim said he no longer felt obliged to maintain a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and longrange missile tests and that he would soon unveil “a new strategic weapon”.

In 2017, Mr Kim’s torrid run of major weapons tests aimed at acquiring the ability to launch nuclear strikes on the mainland US triggered fears of war on the Korean Peninsula. Mr Kim later suspended nuclear and long-range missile tests before he began direct talks with Mr Trump.

Diplomacy has been stalled since the breakdown of the second summit between Mr Trump and Mr Kim in Vietnam in early 2019. During that meeting, Mr Trump rebuffed Mr Kim’s calls for major sanctions relief in return for partial disarmament. In recent weeks, North Korea has conducted a spate of missile and artillery test launches.