(Seoul) North Korea threatened a possible resumption of long-range nuclear and ballistic missile testing at a politburo meeting on Wednesday under Kim Jong-un, who is preparing for “a long-term confrontation” with the United States.
Posted at 7:39 p.m.
“The hostile policy and military threat of the United States has reached a danger line that can no longer be ignored” and the meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party “ordered […] to quickly consider the question of a resumption” of all temporarily suspended activities, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency reported on Thursday, obviously referring to nuclear and long-range missile programs.
Kim Jong-un announced a moratorium on nuclear and long-range ballistic missile testing in 2018, saying his goals were achieved, but threatened to lift the moratorium after talks with Donald Trump broke down.
During the meeting, chaired by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a report was presented analyzing conditions on the Korean peninsula and discussing “the direction of defensive measures against the United States for the future”.
According to KCNA, “the United States has slandered our state and committed the senseless act of taking more than twenty sanctions measures, and North Korea must prepare for a long-term confrontation with the American imperialists”.
North Korea has already made several launches this year, including two tactical guided missiles, as it seeks to bolster its conventional weaponry while fending off offers for talks from the United States.
Last week, Washington imposed new sanctions on Pyongyang, and North Korea responded by stepping up the tests, asserting its “legitimate right” to self-defense.
“Illegal and destabilizing activities”
Earlier this week, the United States called on North Korea to cease “its illegal and destabilizing activities”.
The American envoy on the North Korean file Sung Kim urged North Korea to resume dialogue, “without preconditions”.
This possible resumption of nuclear testing comes at a delicate time for the region, when a presidential election is scheduled for March in South Korea, while China, North Korea’s only major ally, prepares to host the Olympics. winter next month.
North Korea is going through a severe economic crisis, aggravated by the sanctions and the border closures it imposed on itself in early 2020 in the name of the fight against COVID-19.
The United States has called for a new meeting of the UN Security Council on North Korea after the country fired several missiles over the past week. This meeting, behind closed doors, should be held on Thursday, a diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity, indicating that the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Albania and Mexico had expressed their support with this American initiative.
“We will continue to increase the pressure on the North Koreans,” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday.
On January 10, the previous meeting of the Security Council was shortly followed by a new North Korean ballistic test, described as “provocation” by a diplomat from a member country of the Security Council.
In a joint statement, six countries – the United States, Albania, France, Ireland, Japan and the United Kingdom – then called on Pyongyang “to refrain from any further destabilizing action”. North Korea had ignored this call.