| |
Kim:Great Satisfaction of NKorea Tests 08/17 09:01
North Korea said Saturday that leader Kim Jong Un supervised another
test-firing of an unspecified new weapon, seen as an attempt to pressure
Washington and Seoul over slow nuclear negotiations and their joint military
exercises.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea said Saturday that leader Kim Jong Un
supervised another test-firing of an unspecified new weapon, seen as an attempt
to pressure Washington and Seoul over slow nuclear negotiations and their joint
military exercises.
Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, said that following
Friday's launches, Kim expressed "great satisfaction" over his military's
"mysterious and amazing success rates" in recent testing activity and vowed to
build up "invincible military capabilities no one dare provoke." The report did
not mention any specific comment about the United States or South Korea.
The launches were North Korea's sixth round of tests since late July that
revealed developments of a new rocket artillery system and two separate
short-range mobile ballistic missile systems that experts say would expand its
ability to strike targets throughout South Korea, including U.S. bases there.
KCNA did not describe what Friday's weapons were or how they performed, but
said that the tests were successful and strengthened the military's confidence
in the reliability of the system.
North Korea's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper published photos that showed
what appeared to be a missile soaring from a launcher installed on a vehicle
and striking what appeared to be a coastal target. Kim is seen jubilantly
raising his fist while celebrating with military officials.
"(Kim) said everyone should remember that it is the (ruling) party's core
plan and unwavering determination to build a powerful force strong enough to
discourage any forces from daring to provoke us and to leave any opponent
defenseless against our Juche weapons of absolute power even in situations of
physical clashes," KCNA said, referring to the North's national ideology of
self-reliance.
In a separate statement on Saturday, KCNA berated the ongoing U.S.-South
Korea military drills as an invasion rehearsal that compels North Korea to
constantly develop "powerful physical means and their deployment for an actual
war."
The United States has downsized its major military exercises with South
Korea and halted dispatches of strategic assets such as long-range bombers and
aircraft carriers to the region since the first summit between Kim and
President Donald Trump last year. But North Korea says even the smaller drills
violate agreements between the leaders.
South Korea's military said earlier that two projectiles launched from the
North's eastern coast flew about 230 kilometers (143 miles) before landing in
waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The U.S. and South Korean
militaries were analyzing the launches but didn't immediately say whether the
weapons were ballistic missiles or rocket artillery.
Experts say Trump's repeated downplaying of the North's recent launches
allow the country more room to intensify its testing activity and advance its
short-range weaponry while it seeks to build leverage ahead of nuclear
negotiations with Washington, which could resume after the end of the military
drills later this month.
The U.S. envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, will visit Japan and South
Korea early next week for talks on how to "further strengthen coordination on
the final, fully verified denuclearization" of North Korea, the U.S. State
Department said.
North Korea has ignored South Korean calls for dialogue recently and is seen
as trying to force Seoul to make stronger efforts to coax major concessions
from Washington on its behalf.
Hours before the latest launches, an unidentified North Korean government
spokesperson used unusually blunt language to criticize South Korean President
Moon Jae-in for continuing to hold military exercises with the U.S. and over
his rosy comments on inter-Korean diplomacy, and said Pyongyang has no current
plans to talk with Seoul.
Moon said in a televised speech on Thursday that momentum for dialogue
remains alive despite the series of "worrying actions taken by North Korea
recently" and called for Pyongyang to choose "economic prosperity over its
nuclear program."
The spokesperson also criticized South Korea's recent acquisition of
advanced U.S.-made fighter jets and said it would be "senseless" for Moon to
believe that inter-Korean dialogue will automatically begin after the end of
the U.S.-South Korean drills.
The North had recently said it would talk only with Washington and not
Seoul, and that inter-Korean dialogue won't resume unless the South offers a
"plausible excuse" on why it keeps hosting military drills with the United
States. Seoul's Unification Ministry, which deals with inter-Korean affairs,
criticized the North Korean statement, saying it wouldn't help efforts to
improve relations.
(KR)
|
|
