Kim Jong Un boasts as new tests increase fear of nuclear strikes on US
NORTH KOREA has ramped up global tensions with a test-firing of what experts fear is a more powerful engine for a nuclear missile that could reach the US.
Last Friday’s test, the second in less than a week, came as talks between Pyongyang and Washington over denuclearisation remain deadlocked ahead of an end-of-year deadline set by dictator Kim Jong Un.
North Korean authorities did not specify what had been tested last week, but days earlier Pyongyang said it had conducted a ‘very important test’ at the launch site on the north-west coast.
Experts fear the ‘hermit kingdom’ is preparing to provoke Washington if the US does not ease sanctions imposed after nuclear talks stalled.
North Korea announced that the latest test at its Sohae satellite launch site was of ‘great significance’, boasting that it would ‘change the strategic position of North Korea in the near future’.
A regime spokesman said its two tests so far this month would ‘further bolster the reliable strategic nuclear deterrent of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’.
Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at South Korea’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said the North’s reference to its nuclear deterrent made it clear that it had tested a new engine for a long-range missile, not a satellitelaunch vehicle.
Kim said it was notable that North Korea announced the specific length of the test, which he said could signal the use of a larger missile engine.
North Korea’s current long-range missiles are built with first stages powered by engines based on Russian designs. During a provocative run of weapons tests in 2017, Kim Jong Un’s regime demonstrated the potential to reach deep into the US.
Those tests triggered a war of words between North Korea and President Trump, with both sides exchanging crude insults and threats of nuclear annihilation.
Kim Jong Un, who unilaterally suspended nuclear and long-range missile tests last year, has warned that North Korea could seek a ‘new path’ if the US persisted with sanctions.
Earlier this month, a senior North Korean official promised to send a ‘Christmas gift’ to the US. Ri Thae Song, a vice-minister at the Foreign Ministry, said the nature of the ‘gift’ would depend on the outcome of talks with the Americans.
Last month, Japan accused North Korea of repeated ‘launches of ballistic missiles’ after two projectiles were fired into the Sea of Japan.
The communists claimed they were testing a ‘super-large multiplerocket launcher’. But days later Japan was warned it ‘may see what a real ballistic missile is in the not too distant future’. North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations also said last week that denuclearisation was off the table, accusing the US of dragging its feet on talks to benefit a ‘domestic political agenda’.