Diplomacy, or the lack thereof, between the US and North Korea is slowly grinding back to square one.
With relations between Trump and Kim seemingly in tatters, North Korea’s state media reported on Friday that leader Kim Jong Un had inspected a site testing a “high-tech tactical weapon” South Korean Yonhap news service reported, the first mention by state media of a new development in weapons in months.
North Korea’s Korea Central Broadcasting Station (KCBS) did not say exactly what kind of weapon Kim inspected, but noted that the test was successful, Yonhap said.
“The state-of-the art weapon that has been long developed under the leadership of our party’s dynamic leadership has a meaning of completely safeguarding our territory and significantly improving the combat power of our people’s army,” Yonhap cited KCBS as reporting.
The development is notable because North Korea has not tested a nuclear weapon or ballistic missile since last year. In public Kim has focused almost entirely on visits to economic rather than military projects, according to Reuters.
This is Kim’s first field visit to a testing site since his unprecedented summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in June, when the two leaders agreed to work toward denuclearization and peace on the Korean peninsula, and to establish new relations between the United States and North Korea. The agreement was short on specifics, and negotiations has since stalled.
The North Korean announcement may be in retaliation to a report earlier this week from the Japan Times according to which the United States had advised Japan it may resume large-scale joint military exercises with South Korea as early as next spring, if there continues to be no tangible progress on the denuclearization of North Korea. South Korea’s Defense Ministry has said it will decide whether to restart the joint drills by Dec. 1.
The Trump administration has touched on the possibility of resuming the two major spring exercises with South Korea known as Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, the Japanese sources said.
Key Resolve, a computerized command post exercise, was usually conducted between February and March, and Foal Eagle, a field training exercise involving ground, air and naval forces, typically took place between March and April.
Within the Japanese government, many believe that North Korea will not completely abandon its nuclear ambitions if the United States does not exert strong pressure on Pyongyang. “Continuing to suspend the large-scale drills while there is no progress on U.S.-North Korea negotiations would benefit Pyongyang,” a senior Japanese diplomat said.
North Korea has for a long time slammed joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korean forces as rehearsals for invasion, and regional tensions
During a press conference after the historic summit with Kim on June 12, Trump said he will suspend “war games” with South Korea as long as North Korea engages in denuclearization talks in a sincere manner as they are “tremendously expensive” and “provocative.”
The fact that the US is considering shifting its posture would indicate that diplomacy with Pyongyang has failed.
Meanwhile, since North Korea has traditionally relied on Chinese support in its defiance of Trump, the latest North Korean development may be a trial balloon by Beijing to “advise” Washington that relations between the two superpowers, marred by an ongoing trade war, have deteriorated to such an extent that the nuclear standoff status quo between Trump and his nemesis for much of 2017, Kim Jong-Un, may soon be restored. It would come at a time of increasingly difficulty for Trump, who recently lost control of the House and is awaiting the release of the Mueller report which is said to be due in the coming weeks.
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