North Korea’s state media said Sunday that leader Kim Jong Un had overseen a rocket and tactical guided weapons test, after the drill Saturday had 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 “tactical guided weapons”.
Seoul’s military described the weapons as “projectiles” after it detected Saturday’s firing.
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 realizes 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.
