SEOUL, Nov 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has
overseen the testing of a “newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon”,
Pyongyang’s state media reported Friday, in a move that will raise the
temperature over denuclearisation talks.
It marked the first official report of a weapons test by North Korea in
nearly a year since it launched a delicate diplomacy with Washington over its
nuclear and missile programme.
“Kim Jong Un…visited the test ground of the Academy of Defence Science
and supervised a newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon test,” said the
official Korean Central News Agency.
It said the test was successful but did not specify the type of device
involved.
Pyongyang’s suspension of testing for nuclear weapons and ballistic
missiles has been key to this year’s rapid diplomatic developments and North
Korean-US negotiations, and has been repeatedly praised by President Donald
Trump.
Trump and Kim met in a historic summit in Singapore in June, where they
signed a vaguely worded document on denuclearisation of the peninsula.
Progress has since stalled as Washington and Pyongyang spar over the
meaning of the document, and a return to testing would cast grave doubts over
the future of the process.
The use of the word “tactical” in the KCNA report suggests that no long-
range ballistic rocket or nuclear device was involved, and there were no
immediate indications any such test had been detected by the South.
However, one of the senior military officials listed as accompanying Kim
was Pak Jong Chon, identified by the specialist website NK Leadership Watch,
as head of the Korean People’s Army Artillery Command
In response to the first reports, Adam Mount of the Federation of American
Scientists tweeted: “That pit of dread you felt in your stomach when you read
this is your reminder that the DPRK missile test pause is voluntary, partial,
and can fail without notice if it isn’t explicitly codified.”
DPRK is the abbreviation for the country’s official name.
– Running out –
Kim expressed “great satisfaction” and said the test marks “decisive turn
in bolstering the fighting capacity” of the North’s military, KCNA said.
The “ultramodern tactical weapon” had been developed over a long period and
its “great success serves as another striking demonstration of the validity
of the Party policy of prioritising defence science and technology and the
rapidly developing defence capability”, it added.
The news came almost a year after Pyongyang’s last test of an
intercontinental ballistic missile and recalled the repeated announcements of
2017, which included by far its most powerful nuclear blast to date and
rockets that brought the whole of the US mainland into range.
Soon afterwards Kim declared the development of his nuclear arsenal —
which Pyongyang has long said it needs to defend itself against a possible
invasion by the US — complete.
The Winter Olympics in the South then triggered a rapid diplomatic
rapprochement on the peninsula, heralding the Singapore meeting and three
summits between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
A second encounter between Kim and Trump is expected in the new year.
But Pyongyang is demanding sanctions imposed against it over its weapons
programmes are eased and has condemned US demands for what it calls its
“unilateral” disarmament as “gangster-like”.
Washington insists the measures should stay in place until the North’s
“final, fully verified” denuclearisation.
Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korea Studies in Seoul
told AFP the test was “a signal to the US sent ahead of the high level talks
that its own patience is also wearing thin”.
After the Singapore summit, Trump announced the suspension of joint
military exercises with the South, the United States’ treaty ally, calling
them “provocative” in an echo of the North’s condemnations.
Earlier this month the allies resumed a small-scale amphibious drill, the
Korea Marine Exercise Program, prompting criticism by the North’s media.