SEOUL: North Korea’s latest missile launches did not violate a pledge its leader Kim Jong Un made to US President Donald Trump, a senior US official said on Thursday, but efforts to resume denuclearisation talks remained in doubt.
Kim oversaw the first test firing of a “new-type large-calibre multiple-launch guided rocket system” on Wednesday, North Korean state media reported.
North Korean state television showed rockets launching from a vehicle that had been blurred in photos to obscure its features.
The launch came six days after North Korea tested two short-range ballistic missiles, its first tests since Kim and Trump met on June 30 and agreed to revive stalled denuclearisation talks.
The latest launches appeared intended to put pressure on South Korea and the United States to stop planned military exercises, analysts said, and came as diplomats criss-cross the region this week in the hope of restarting the talks.
“The firing of these missiles don’t violate the pledge that Kim Jong Un made to the president about intercontinental-range ballistic missiles,” US national security adviser John Bolton said in an interview with Fox Business News.
“But you have to ask when the real diplomacy is going to begin, when the working-level discussions on denuclearisation will begin,” he said.
North Korea’s tests of short-range missiles over the past week happened despite the meeting between Kim and Trump on June 30 at demilitarised zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas at which they agreed to revive their talks on North Korea’s weapons.
South Korea’s intelligence agency told lawmakers more North Korean missile tests were possible this month, said Lee Eun-jae, one of the lawmakers.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Vipin Narang said the missile tests were part of the North Korean leader’s approach to diplomacy: “He’s saying it will take more than a photo-op to get things moving.”
The tests were a stark reminder that every day the United States and its allies failed to secure an agreement is a day that North Korea continues to improve and expand its nuclear and missile arsenals, he said.
US officials have played down the tests.
On Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he hoped talks would start soon, though he “regretted” that a highly anticipated meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho would not take place in Thailand this week. Ri has cancelled a trip to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) conference in Bangkok that Pompeo is attending. — Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
