North Korea conducts new test at rocket site, aims to 'overpower U.S. nuclear threats'

[rooster59]

North Korea conducts new test at rocket site, aims to 'overpower U.S. nuclear threats'

By Heekyong Yang and Josh Smith

 

FILE PHOTO - A North Korean flag flies on a mast at the Permanent Mission of North Korea in Geneva October 2, 2014. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Picture

 

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said it had successfully conducted another test at a satellite launch site, the latest in a string of developments aimed at "restraining and overpowering the nuclear threat of the U.S.", state news agency KCNA reported on Saturday.

 

The test was conducted on Friday at the Sohae satellite launch site, KCNA said, citing a spokesman for North Korea's Academy of Defence Science, without specifying what sort of testing occurred.

 

In a later statement carried by KCNA, Chief of the General Staff Pak Jong Chon said the tests were designed to bolster North Korea's defences by developing new weapons.

 

"The priceless data, experience and new technologies gained in the recent tests of defence science research will be fully applied to the development of another strategic weapon of the DPRK for definitely and reliably restraining and overpowering the nuclear threat of the U.S.," he said, using the initials of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

 

It was the second test at the Sohae facility in the space of a week.

 

KCNA on Sunday said that North Korea had carried out a "very important" test on Dec. 7 at the satellite launch site, a rocket-testing facility that U.S. officials once said North Korea had promised to close.

 

That KCNA report called the Dec. 7 event a "successful test of great significance". South Korea's defence minister Jeong Keong-doo said it was an engine test.

 

The reported tests come ahead of a year-end deadline North Korea has put forth for the United States to drop its insistence on unilateral denuclearisation by Pyongyang.

 

U.S. President Donald Trump has invested considerable time trying to persuade North Korea to give up a nuclear weapons programme that has grown to threaten the United States, but progress has been scant in spite of his three meetings with Kim Jong Un.

 

"ARMY READY"

 

North Korea would be ready to respond to all political and military provocations by hostile forces while being "familiar with both dialogue and confrontation", Pak said.

 

"Genuine peace can be safeguarded and our development and future be guaranteed only when the balance of power is completely ensured", he said.

 

Pak warned that the United States and others should avoid provoking North Korea if they wanted a peaceful end-of-year period.

 

"Our army is fully ready to thoroughly carry out any decision of the Supreme Leader with action," he said.

 

Pyongyang has warned it could take a "new path" amid the stalled talks with the United States.

 

The top U.S envoy for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, U.S. special envoy for North Korea, is due in Seoul on Sunday for meetings with South Korean officials.

 

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday said the United States would be "tested soon" on bringing North Korea back to the negotiating table.

 

"They (North Korea) are still doing training, they do short range ballistic missile tests that we are also concerned about.

 

"We watch closely as do South Korea and Japan ... the State Department is trying to get them to the table, because the only way forward is through a diplomatic and political agreement," Esper said at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations.

 

REMINDER

 

Analysts said such tests could help North Korea build more reliable intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

 

"The point seems to be to remind the United States that North Korea still has space to qualitatively advance its programme," said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Federation of American Scientists.

 

"We had a good hint that whatever they were doing at Sohae was military in nature when the Academy of Defence Science took charge of the announcement, as opposed to NADA, their space agency," Panda added.

 

Tension has been rising in recent weeks as Pyongyang has conducted weapons tests and waged a war of words with U.S. President Donald Trump, stoking fears that tensions between the two countries could return.

 

"Considering the fact that North Korea said the 7-minute test conducted last night was to bolster the strategic nuclear deterrence, the test would likely be related to ICBMs, which North Korea considers a strategic weapon to defend itself from adversaries including the United States," Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Dongguk University in Seoul, told Reuters.

 

"North Korea is close to issuing an ultimatum towards the United States to come to the negotiating table with new calculations or to return to developing nuclear weapons," Koh added.

 

(Reporting by Heekyong Yang and Josh Smith and Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Gerry Doyle, Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Alex Richardson)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-15

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[Tug]

Well looks like donalds little bromance dident work out this is another reason why we need competent leadership in the White house

[sammieuk1]

Looks like Guam or the east coast could be the early Christmas present from the little rocket mans gift box????

[sawadeeken]

Seems time for the USA to go in and level the playing field before that 'lunatic' follows thru with his threats.........

[sawadeeken]

I Think the only thing left for the countries opposed to NK is to give South Korea a few missles to test similarly,...... Might open up that Kim guy's eyes....

[Russell17au]

8 minutes ago, sawadeeken said:

Seems time for the USA to go in and level the playing field before that 'lunatic' follows thru with his threats.........

Why should the US be allowed to have nukes and dictate that other countries are not allowed to have them. It is about time that ALL countries including the US get rid of their nukes

[jany123]

4 hours ago, sawadeeken said:

Seems time for the USA to go in and level the playing field before that 'lunatic' follows thru with his threats.........

What? Another bite at the Apple? Maybe it’s time that America formally recognizes that it lost that war and allows the region to move on....  Let its nuclear powered neighbors worry about it’s arms ambitions.

[sirineou]

4 hours ago, sawadeeken said:

Seems time for the USA to go in and level the playing field before that 'lunatic' follows thru with his threats.........

What nonsense .

Don't you think other presidents wanted to solve the NK problem? trump came in and because he was such a "stable genius" he would do what others couldn't. His Naivete is only surpassed by that of his followers., Anyone who ever thought that Kim  would give up the only thing that is keeping him alive on the promises of America, after seeing what happened to others who depended on those promises ,is IMO way more than naive

    Seoul Korea  a city of about 10 million people is only about 300 km away from NK !! never mind their ability to retaliate, think of a city 300km away from where you are, and then think if you want that city "Leveled" . 

Think nuclear weapons, think biological weapons, think Japan nearby, think China near by, think world economy disruption,  think holly church of walmart without comunion.

 
 

[OneMoreFarang]

It seems China is not concerned about NK.

Maybe the USA should just relax and don't threaten NK (or anybody else).

 

Obviously the situation in NK is not good. But it won't go away anytime soon with threats. And it won't go away with telling them to scrap their nukes and keeping your own nukes. Why would NK do that?

 

How about working together and peaceful solutions? Or is that concept too difficult to understand? 

 

[Cryingdick]

Wake me up if they test a nuke. As it stands it is about as concerning as Thai children playing with firecrackers. They might blow a finger or two off but other than that I am not shaking in my star spangled boots.