The UN Security Council was to hold an emergency meeting this Friday to discuss North Korea’s seven missile tests in the past four weeks. The meeting was requested by the United States, along with Britain and France, and agreed by Russia, which holds the presidency of UNSC for the month of February.

However, given the Russo-American saber-rattling on Ukraine at the Security Council on Monday and especially in view of Sino-Russian history with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs, one more UNSC meet on North Korea’s juggernaut is very unlikely to produce anything substantive.

In fact, anticipating this likelihood of an ineffectual – or worse, divided – UNSC, Britain, France and Germany on Wednesday pre-empted the council by calling on North Korea “to accept the repeated offers of dialogue put forward by the United States,” thereby putting the onus exclusively on the US.

Indeed, of these seven missiles tests – which included six ballistic missiles, two of them hypersonic – it was the last one, the Hwasong-12 IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missile) test last Sunday, that marked the longest-range missile test since 2017.

This is the one that startled US President Joe Biden’s administration, obliging it to approach the UNSC for early redressal. On normal apogee, the Hwasong-12 can reach 5,500 kilometers, which covers all of the US military deployments in North Korea’s periphery.

Last October as well, the US, UK and France convened a UNSC emergency meeting as North Korea, in defiance of the Biden administration’s calls, tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile that, at least potentially, enables Pyongyang to strike anywhere on Earth. Even at that time, the UNSC could not reach any consensus because of open opposition from China and Russia, leaving the US to fend for itself.

US taking the lead

The US track record in taking the lead of course throws up its own puzzles and pitfalls. In 2017, then-president Donald Trump began by name-calling Kim Jong Un as “Rocket Man,” threatening him with “fire and fury,” but soon melted into exploring their “personal relationship” that resulted in two unsuccessful summits.

Other than obtaining a 17-month respite from North Korean tests, those two summits served only to embolden Kim, who has since rejected all US efforts to revive talks, underlining their trust deficit.

While candidate Biden, like Trump, had also begun by calling the North Korean leader “short and fat” and “a thug” and by being highly critical of Trump’s “love” for Kim, he has yet to follow the Trumpian U-turn by offering to hold a direct meeting with Kim Jong Un. This neglect of the “Dear Respected Comrade” by President Biden has since triggered Kim’s ratcheting up of this testing spree.

Also, while Biden continues to pursue the same Trumpian aims of complete denuclearization of North Korea as a precondition to lifting sanctions, his approach in engaging Pyongyang has remained rather subtle and piecemeal, if not insipid and lackluster. The US continues to seek refuge in lofty ambitions but its strategies so far have allowed the North Korean nuclear and missile programs to flourish unabated.

The Biden administration’s preoccupation with sanctions and its rhetoric of protecting its credibility with its regional allies have become increasingly mind-numbing and appear both rigid and dated. Meanwhile, Kim Jong Un has continued building his deterrence capabilities.

Unstoppable Kim Jong Un

In a rare gesture in 2017, the UNSC unanimously slapped sanctions on North Korea’s oil imports and coal, iron, textile and fish exports. These, however, were followed by North Korea precipitously conducting its sixth nuclear test on September 3 that year, followed by Hwasong IRBM tests in November.

Two of those missiles were fired over the Japanese island of Hokkaido and three others demonstrated the ability to reach the US military base in Guam; plus it tested a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with a range of up to 13,000 kilometers, which could potentially hit the US mainland.

There is little doubt that Kim Jong Un’s buildup of a nuclear deterrent remains aimed at the United States and that its allies Japan and South Korea remain only a subset of his strategy. But even there, rather abrasively, Kim has called Joe Biden a weak coward and a real thug, while his powerful sister Kim Yo Jong warned the Biden administration that if “it wants to sleep in peace for the coming four years, it had better refrain from causing a stink as its first step.”

More recently, Kim Jong Un seems to be taking advantage of Biden being preoccupied with the Covid-19 pandemic and and the Ukraine crisis. There are even deeper insinuations of Ukraine having helped North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities.

Meanwhile, South Korean President Moon Jae-in sees that his country’s security could become marginalized in US calculations in dealing with the North Korean regime.

After the Hwasong-12 test, he was quick to express his anxieties, warning on Monday how these precipitous missile tests were bound to push Kim Jong Un closer to scrapping its April 2018 moratorium on nuclear and ICBM tests. This was immediately echoed by US officials as they began calling on Pyongyang to revive direct talks without any preconditions.

It is bewildering, however, to see the US repeating the same old rhetoric after the ground realities have changed rather rapidly. If anything, US officials have been urging Pyongyang for direct talks ever since the failed Kim-Trump Hanoi summit of February 2019, but have reportedly been rebuffed by the Kim regime. Understandably, the gulf between the expectations of both sides has expanded with the passage of time.

Changed ground realities

Taking a cue from his interactions with Trump, Kim Jong Un’s frequent and longer-range missile tests seem part of his attempt to apply the same maximum pressure “tit-for-tat” strategy to reverse Washington’s hostile sanctions policy.

In this context, the US strategy of imposing severe sanctions – which remains equally ineffective in the Ukraine crisis – or worse, posturing a redeployment of US nuclear forces in South Korea will only egg Kim on to accelerate these tests and eventually breach his April 2018 moratorium.

Kim Jong Un building up his robust nuclear deterrence capability makes denuclearization of North Korea a distant dream. At the most ambitious level, Kim now wants the US to recognize North Korea as a normal nuclear-weapons state – in fact to reward it for being a responsible nuclear state.

He now wants the US to convert its outdated strategy of nuclear disarmament-for-lifting-sanctions into one of lifting sanctions in lieu of suspension of North Korean tests – this swap being his prerequisite for a Biden-Kim summit. Kim aims to sign a much-anticipated peace treaty with the US, extending mutual diplomatic recognition, exchange ambassadors and finally remove US forces from North Korea’s periphery.

All this seems way beyond what US is even contemplating. Surely the current format of US North Korea strategy has stopped working and needs an urgent overhaul. Kim Jong Un’s increasingly robust nuclear deterrence makes it incumbent on the Biden administration to rejig its North Korea strategy.

Can it begin to think of calibrating incremental lifting of sanctions to buy time with a moratorium on North Korea’s missile tests? The US may also need to recalibrate its military deployments in the region to initiate foot-in-the-door diplomacy to hold its regional allies in good stead by redefining its alignments and objectives.

Can the US offer to desist from military exercises, downsize its military presence in North Korea’s periphery by potentially inducting its regional allies like Japan, South Korea and other friends into a more dynamic AUKUS-plus security mechanism to broad-base its advantages?

The Biden administration has to begin contemplating such out-of-the-box strategies to incentivize instead of alienating North Korea, an authoritarian regime with robust nuclear capabilities.

SWARAN SINGH
Dr Swaran Singh is professor of diplomacy and disarmament at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; adjunct senior fellow at The Charhar Institute, Beijing; senior fellow, Institute for National Security Studies Sri Lanka, Colombo; and visiting professor, Research Institute for Indian Ocean Economies, Kunming (China).

Source: https://asiatimes.com/2022/02/biden-administration-must-rejig-its-north-korea-strategy/

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SEOUL, South Korea — America’s No. 2 diplomat on Friday expressed sympathy for North Koreans facing hardships and food shortages linked to the pandemic and renewed calls for the North to return to talks over its nuclear program.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has recently warned of a “tense” food situation and admitted his country faces “the worst-ever” crisis. But his government has steadfastly insisted it won’t rejoin the talks unless Washington drops its hostility.

“We all feel for the people of the DPRK, who are indeed facing all the most difficult circumstances given the pandemic, and what it means as well for their food security,” U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told reporters in Seoul, referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“We only hope for a better outcome for the people of the DPRK,” she said.

Sherman spoke after meeting South Korean officials, during which the two sides reaffirmed that they’ll continue diplomatic efforts to convince North Korea to return to the nuclear talks.

“We are looking forward to a reliable, predictable, constructive way forward with the DPRK,” Sherman said. “We have offered to sit and dialogue with the North Koreans, and we are waiting to hear from them.”

Speaking beside Sherman, South Korea’s first vice foreign minister, Choi Jong Kun, said, “We’ll wait for a North Korean response with patience as now is the coronavirus period.”

The talks between Washington and Pyongyang have made little headway since early 2019, when a second summit between Kim and then-President Donald Trump collapsed due to wrangling over U.S.-led economic sanctions. Kim has since threatened to bolster his nuclear arsenal and build more sophisticated weapons unless the Americans lift their hostile policy, an apparent reference to the sanctions.

Some experts say North Korea may be compelled to reach out to the United States if its economic difficulties worsen. Outside monitoring groups haven’t reported any signs of mass starvation or social chaos in North Korea. In recent speeches, Kim has called for his 26 million people to brace for prolonged COVID-19 restrictions, indicating the country wasn’t ready to reopen its borders despite the massive toll on its economy.

South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers this month that North Korea hasn’t received any foreign coronavirus vaccine. COVAX, the U.N.-backed program to ship COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, said in February that North Korea could receive 1.9 million doses in the first half of the year. But UNICEF, which procures and delivers vaccines on behalf of COVAX, said recently that North Korea hasn’t even completed the paperwork for receiving the vaccines and that it was unclear when they could be delivered.

After Seoul, Sherman is to travel on to Mongolia and then China, the North’s last major ally and aid benefactor. She’ll be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit China since President Joe Biden was inaugurated in January.

During her visit to the northeastern Chinese city of Tianjin on Sunday, Sherman said she’ll discuss North Korea with Chinese officials, saying Beijing “certainly has interests and thought” on it.

“The Biden administration has described our relationships with China as obviously a complicated one. It has aspects that are competitive, it has aspects where it is challenging, and aspects where we can cooperate,” she said. “And thinking together about bringing the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is certainly an area for cooperation.”

Choi said China knows well it can play “a very important role” in efforts to bring back North Korea to dialogue. He said Sherman’s China trip would be “very meaningful” and that Seoul and Washington have a shared responsibility for Beijing to play its role.

Ahead of the meeting with Sherman, China has adopted a confrontational tone, reflecting the sharp deterioration in relations that began under Trump and continued under Biden.

The U.S. is “defining China as a competitor, provoking confrontation, and containing and suppressing China’s development,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a daily briefing. “The U.S. side has been calling for dialogue with China from a position of strength, which only reflects its arrogance and hegemony.”

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-diplomat-worried-pandemic-food-supply-korea-79007373

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Despite Trump´s three meetings with Kim, the North Korean leader is expanding his arsenal. This month, Kim rolled out a shiny new, larger intercontinental ballistic missile during a nighttime parade in Pyongayng.

Arms experts said the missile could possibly fire multiple nuclear warheads at the United States. It serves as a reminder that despite Trump´s boasts, North Korea remains one of the biggest dangers to U.S. national security.

North Korea hasn´t been a major campaign issue, though it could surface in Thursday´s debate, which is supposed to include a national security segment. Democrat Joe Biden has blasted Trump´s chummy relationship with Kim, saying that, if elected, he would not meet the North Korean leader unless diplomats first draft a comprehensive agreement. Trump, meanwhile, predicts he can get a deal quickly if reelected, citing the dire conditions in North Korea.

Talk of a quick deal is probably just talk because there’s no sign of significant contacts between Washington and Pyongyang, says Bruce Klingner, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and former CIA Korea deputy chief. He and other North Korea watchers say they are bracing for Kim to showcase his military might again after the U.S. election.

“North Korea already has an ICBM that can range all over the United States, down to Florida and beyond, so the only reason to have an even larger missile is to be able to carry a larger payload,” Klingner said. He said it’s likely that North Korea will “do something strongly provocative early next year, regardless of who is elected president.”

FILE – In this June 30, 2019, file photo, President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea. Trump is defending his North Korea policy at campaign rallies even though he’s joined a list of U.S. presidents unable to eliminate the nuclear threat from Kim Jong Un. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

North Korea is continuing to produce nuclear material, according to a Congressional Research Service report. In addition, between May 2019 and late March 2020, North Korea conducted multiple short-range ballistic missile tests in violation of United Nations Security Council prohibitions.

Multiple diplomatic initiatives during both Democratic and Republican administrations have failed to get North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump dared to be different, opting for in-person meetings with Kim in Singapore, Hanoi and the Demilitarized Zone.

But despite the summits and exchanges of what Trump called “love” letters, his administration has been unable to get traction on denuclearizing North Korea. The last known working group meeting was last October.

Even so, Trump is still claiming victory, saying he’s kept the U.S. out of war with North Korea.

“Where’s the war?” he asked supporters last week in Greenville, North Carolina. He’s used the same line in other campaign speeches in battleground states.

“We have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un,” he said in Freeland, Michigan. “Who knows what likely happens? All I know is we´re not in war and that´s OK.”

Biden says that if he’s elected, he will inherit a North Korean challenge that is worse than when Trump took office.

“After three made-for-TV summits, we still don´t have a single concrete commitment from North Korea,” Biden said in a statement on North Korea. “Not one missile or nuclear weapon has been destroyed. Not one inspector is on the ground. If anything, the situation has gotten worse.”

He added: “North Korea has more capability today than when Trump began his ‘love affair´ with Kim Jong Un, a murderous tyrant who, thanks to Trump, is no longer an isolated pariah on the world stage.” Biden has pledged to work with allies to press Kim to denuclearize.

Biden´s advisers say the former vice president is not averse to sitting down with Kim, but not before a comprehensive negotiating strategy is outlined at working-level meetings by diplomats on both sides. The Biden campaign also criticizes Trump for scaling back military exercises with South Korea.

North Korea typically fires off missiles or conducts tests in a show of force before key U.S. and South Korean elections. This time, experts predict, Kim will engage in saber-rattling after he knows who wins.

“Kim would like to deal with President Trump, rather than Biden,” said Sue Mi Terry, a former intelligence analyst specializing in East Asia who is now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She said Kim does not want to make trouble for Trump by conducting a major provocation before the election. “In January,” she said. “That´s the time we need to watch out for it.”

If Biden wins, the North Koreans will want to engage with the new administration from a position of strength, according to Victor Cha, who negotiated with North Korea during the George W. Bush administration. If Trump wins, Cha thinks the president might want to move quickly to begin negotiations because he went “all in” on his man-to-man diplomacy with Kim and doesn’t want to accept personal defeat.

Some experts believe that instead of repeating diplomatic failures, the U.S. should recognize the reclusive nation as a nuclear weapons state and mitigate the threat through arms control treaties.

Biden’s vice presidential running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, disagrees, saying the U.S. cannot accept North Korea as a nuclear power. But she also said, in written responses to questions posed by the Council on Foreign Relations, that demanding complete denuclearization is a “recipe for failure.”

She has pledged a tough approach to North Korea.

“I guarantee you I won´t be exchanging love letters with Kim Jong Un,” she wrote.

Thousands rally to welcome the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, Monday, Oct. 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-8862227/Growing-NKorean-nuclear-threat-awaits-US-election-winner.html

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Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) – North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he saw no reason to stick to his commitment to suspend long-range nuclear and missile tests and that soon Pyongyang will showcase a “new strategic weapon”.

State media reported yesterday that Kim also argued that talks with the United States are stalled because of Washington’s political interests.  Despite the latest threats, U.S. President Donald J. Trump believes that the North Korean leader will respect the denuclearization agreements.  While Trump has remained silent, United Nations (UN) secretary-general Antonio Guterres says he is “deeply concerned” by Kim’s statements.

The latter, however, seems to leave room for negotiations, since during the last meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party it argued that how much the North will strengthen its “nuclear deterrent” will depend on the future attitude of the United States.  The leader explained that suspending tests on nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) was part of his efforts to build confidence with Washington, which however responded with joint military exercises with South Korea and other sanctions against Pyongyang.

According to Kim, “the real intent of the US is to pursue its political and diplomatic interests while wasting time under the banner of dialogue and negotiations;  at the same time, keep sanctions ”to weaken North Korea.  The dictator also accused the United States of taking a “brigand attitude” in the negotiations, through demands that damage “the fundamental interests of our state”.  Although the lifting of sanctions is necessary for economic development, the North “will never be able to sell its dignity,” said Kim.

The North Korean leader Kim concluded that “there will never be denuclearization on the Korean peninsula” and that the North will continue to develop strategic weapons “until the United States resumes its hostile policy towards North Korea and a mechanism is built.  for the maintenance of lasting peace “.

Source: http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Kim-breaks-agreements-with-the-US-and-announces-a-%27new-strategic-weapon%27-48927.html

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BEIJING (REUTERS) – The leaders of Japan and South Korea will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday (Dec 23), amid heightened concern that North Korea may be about to return to confrontation with Washington.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet Mr. Xi separately before going to the south-western city of Chengdu for a trilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Though various economic matters will also be on the agenda – as well as tensions between Seoul and Tokyo – North Korea appears likely to dominate the agenda.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a meeting of top military officials to discuss boosting the country’s military capability, state news agency reported on Sunday.

North Korea has set a year-end deadline for the United States to change what it says is a policy of hostility amid a stalemate in efforts to make progress on their pledge to end the North’s nuclear programme and establish lasting peace.

Mr. Kim and US President Donald Trump have met three times since June 2018, but there has been no substantive progress in dialogue while the North demanded crushing international sanctions be lifted first.

On Saturday, the state media said the US would “pay dearly” for taking issue with the North’s human rights record, and said Washington’s “malicious words” would only aggravate tensions on the Korean peninsula.

US special envoy for North Korea Stephen Biegun met two senior Chinese diplomats during his two-day visit to Beijing last week, following similar meetings in South Korea and Japan days earlier, as diplomats made last-ditch attempts to prevent a new confrontation.

Beijing, jointly with Russia, proposed last week that the United Nations Security Council lift some sanctions in what it calls an attempt to break the current deadlock and seek to build support.

But it is unclear whether Beijing can convince Seoul and Tokyo to break ranks from Washington, which has made its opposition clear and can veto any resolution.

Though South Korea sees China as instrumental in reviving negotiations, it has so far sidestepped questions on whether it supports the new proposal by Beijing and Moscow. Japan, which has historically been a staunch supporter of sanctions against North Korea, has also refrained from commenting on the proposal.

Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/chinese-president-xi-jinping-to-meet-japan-south-korea-leaders-as-north-korea

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SEOUL: North Korea will not offer anything for US President Donald Trump to brag about without receiving anything in return, a statement on its state news agency KCNA said on Monday (Nov 18).

North Korea was not interested in a summit that was “useless to itself”, said the statement, under the name of Foreign Ministry adviser Kim Kye Gwan, referring to Trump’s message on Sunday to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Twitter.

“If the US does not really want to let go of its dialogue with us, it should make a decision to withdraw its hostile policy of viewing us as an enemy,” the KCNA statement said.

“You should act quickly, get the deal done,” Trump tweeted Sunday, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “See you soon!”

Kim and Trump have met three times since June last year, but talks have been gridlocked since their Hanoi summit in February broke up in disagreement over sanctions relief, while October’s working-level talks rapidly broke down in Sweden.

Pyongyang has set Washington a deadline of the end of the year to come forward with a fresh offer.

The implied criticism of Trump by name is a departure for Pyongyang, which has long limited its frustration to other administration officials.

Last month, adviser Kim declared: “Contrary to the political judgment and intention of President Trump, Washington political circles and DPRK policymakers of the US administration are hostile to the DPRK for no reason,” using the initials of North Korea’s official name.

In September he was fulsome in his praise for the US leader, saying that Trump was “different from his predecessors” and that he placed his hopes in “President Trump’s wise option and bold decision”.

But as the North’s deadline approaches it has issued a series of increasingly assertive statements – while also carrying out a number of weapons launches.

Washington should withdraw its “hostile policy” if it wants the dialogue to continue, Kim said Monday, without elaborating further.

Trump’s tweet came after Washington and Seoul agreed to postpone annual joint aerial exercises to create space for diplomacy with Pyongyang, which condemns such drills as preparations for invasion.

Source: Agencies/ga

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/north-korea-useless-summits-us-donald-trump-kcna-12103796

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In a commentary published Thursday by the official Korean Central News Agency, a North Korea Foreign Ministry spokesperson accused U.S. diplomats of arriving at recent working-level talks in Sweden with an “empty hand, thus breaking them off.” The two countries have sought a deal by which North Korea would abandon its nuclear weapons in exchange for peace, security and the lifting of international sanctions, but Pyongyang has accused Washington of maintaining a maximalist position and of continuing to take provocative steps, such as last week’s nuclear-capable Minuteman III ICBM test out of California.

“As recognized by the international community, the United States conducted the recent intercontinental ballistic missile test-fire in a bid to pressure the DPRK. The DPRK can give tit for tat, but we are now exercising a restraint under the judgment that a counteraction is not necessary yet and it is still premature,” the North Korean official’s statement read, using an acronym for North Korea’s official name.

“But there is a limit to our patience and there is no guarantee that all our patience would continue indefinitely,” the official added.

The U.S. test, which the Pentagon said “demonstrates the United States’ nuclear deterrent is robust, flexible, ready and approximately tailored to deter twenty-first-century threats and reassure our allies,” came a day after North Korea tested an SLBM off the country’s east coast. The medium-range weapon, officially called Pukguksong-3, is the farthest-flying and first nuclear-capable missile to be tested by North Korea since its own previous ICBM test nearly two years ago.

That test came during a period of heightened tensions between President Donald Trump and North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un that lasted throughout 2017 but eventually gave in to both inter-Korean and U.S.-North Korea peace talks the following year. Ahead of his debut meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Trump, Kim pledged to suspend nuclear tests and longer-range missile launches.

This self-imposed moratorium silenced North Korea’s missiles for nearly a year and a half, but after Trump and Kim’s second meeting failed to produce an agreement in February, two series of short-range weapons tests were conducted in May. Then too, the U.S. conducted a Minuteman III test at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California shortly after the North Korean launch.

As talks again appeared to stall, the two leaders once again came together, this time alongside Moon, for a historic meeting at the border between the two Koreas, still technically a warzone, in late June. As the U.S. and South Korea pressed ahead with joint military drills, however, North Korea began a new series of short-range tests that would last through September.

The Trump administration has mostly brushed off these displays, as well as last week’s SLBM test, acknowledging them as violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions but not commitments made by Kim to the U.S. leader. In response to European condemnations, North Korean officials have repeatedly stated that the country does not acknowledge U.N.-imposed restrictions on its missile program.

Despite this, six European nations including Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom expressed their “condemnation” toward North Korea’s SLBM test in a joint statement issued after a Security Council meeting. The North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson blasted the sextet in Thursday’s statement, accusing them of remaining silent towards the recent U.S. ICBM launch.

“The UNSC which champions fairness and equity picks fault with the just measure belonging to our right to self-defense while keeping mum about the test-fire of Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile recently conducted by the U.S. This is a serious provocation against the DPRK,” the official said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

The Europeans had also called for North Korea “to engage in good faith in meaningful negotiations with the United States,” but Pyongyang and Washington exited their Stockholm talks with diverging messages of what transpired behind closed doors.

A graphic shows a broad overview of missile tests carried out by North Korea since 1984, based on data compiled by the Nuclear Threat Initiative. North Korea has demonstrated more advanced missile technology with a higher success rate in recent years.  Source: Statista

North Korean chief negotiator Kim Myong Gil told reporters that “the negotiations have not fulfilled our expectations and finally broke up” because “the U.S. would not give up their own viewpoint and attitude.” The State Department, however, argued that his comments “do not reflect the content or the spirit of today’s 8 1/2 hour discussion” and argued that the U.S. “brought creative ideas and had good discussions with its DPRK counterparts.”

“The United States and the DPRK will not overcome a legacy of 70 years of war and hostility on the Korean Peninsula through the course of a single Saturday. These are weighty issues, and they require a strong commitment by both countries,” it added. “The United States has that commitment.”

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson hit back with a statement Sunday, accusing the U.S. side of “spreading a completely ungrounded story that both sides are open to meet after two weeks.” The official said the country had “no intention to hold such sickening negotiations as what happened this time before the U.S. takes a substantial step to make complete and irreversible withdrawal of the hostile policy toward the DPRK.”

“We have already made it clear that if the U.S. again fingers at the old scenario which has nothing to do with new calculation method, the dealings between the DPRK and the U.S. may immediately come to an end,” the official added. “As we have clearly identified the way for solving the problem, the fate of the future DPRK-U.S. dialogue depends on the U.S. attitude, and the end of this year is its deadline.”

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/north-korea-deal-missile-patience-1464439

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SEOUL -North Korea Thursday warned its “patience is running out” and threatened to increase provocations following the breakdown of nuclear talks with the United States.

The warning is the latest evidence North Korea is returning to a more combative posture after walking away from the first substantive nuclear negotiations in months.

A statement in the Korean Central News Agency accused the U.S. of orchestrating this week’s meeting of the United Nations Security Council, which condemned North Korea’s recent missile launch.

The KCNA statement, attributed to a Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson, called that U.N. meeting a “severe provocation.” It also condemned the recent U.S. test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

“Our patience is running out, and it is not guaranteed that what we have been restraining from will last indefinitely,” the statement said.

FILE – North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator Kim Myong Gil is seen outside the North Korean Embassy in Stockholm, Oct. 5, 2019.

North Korea stormed out of working-level nuclear talks last week, accusing the U.S. of not bringing any new ideas to help break the months-long deadlock.

Earlier this week, European members of the Security Council called on North Korea to engage “in good faith in meaningful negotiations with the United States.”

The European U.N. ambassadors also condemned North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test as a violation of Security Council resolutions.

Since early May, North Korea has conducted 11 rounds of missile tests, most of which involved ballistic missile technology that North Korea is banned from possessing.

North Korea’s latest launch was October 2, involving a medium-range ballistic missile Pyongyang says was meant to be launched from a submarine.

Hours later, the U.S. Air Force tested an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The Air Force said such tests “are not a response or reaction to world events or regional tensions.”

North Korea disagrees.

“The U.S. launch of the intercontinental ballistic missile was clearly aimed to pressure us,” North Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said Thursday. The North could respond, it added, but said: “We believe it is too early and not necessary to do so.”

FILE – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends the testing of a super-large multiple rocket launcher in North Korea, in this undated photo released Sept. 10, 2019 by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in April 2018 announced he was stopping ICBM and nuclear tests. The announcement came amid renewed diplomacy with the U.S. and South Korea.

However, North Korean officials have since threatened to resume the tests several times, amid the breakdown in talks.

“It looks like North Korea is using the U.S. as a pretext for escalating military action if talks don’t work out,” said Rachel Minyoung Lee, a Seoul-based analyst at NK News, a publication that focuses on North Korea affairs.

U.S. President Donald Trump has played down the North’s missile tests, saying they are not long-range and do not threaten the United States.

The U.S. has also attempted to put a positive spin on the talks.

After North Korea walked away last week, the U.S. State Department characterized the discussions as “good” and said U.S. negotiators accepted a Swedish invitation to return to the talks in two weeks.

North Korea has said such a follow-up meeting is not likely.

Source: https://www.voanews.com/usa/north-korea-threatens-increased-provocations-following-breakdown-nuclear-talks

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North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un talks to US President Donald Trump at a meeting on the border with South Korea on June 30, 2019. AFP

Kim Jong-un has been formally named head of state of North Korea and commander-in-chief of the military in a new constitution observers said was possibly aimed at preparing for a peace treaty with the United States.

North Korea has also long called for a peace deal with the US to normalize relations and end the technical state of war that has existed since the 1950-1953 Korean War concluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

The new constitution, unveiled on the Naenara state portal site on Thursday, said that Mr. Kim as chairman of the State Affairs Commission (SAC), a top governing body created in 2016, was “the supreme representative of all the Korean people”, which means head of state, and “commander-in-chief”.

A previous constitution simply called Mr. Kim the “supreme leader” who commands the country’s “overall military force”.

Previously, North Korea’s official head of state was the president of the titular parliament, known as the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly.

“Kim had dreamed of becoming the president of North Korea and he effectively made it come true,” said Kim Dong-yup, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Far East Institute in Seoul.

“He has long sought to shake off the abnormal military-first policy the country has stuck to for a long time.”

Mr. Kim shifted his focus to the economy last year, launched nuclear talks with the United States and moved to revamp his image as a world leader via summits with South Korea, China, and Russia.

Hong Min, a senior researcher of the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said the title change was also aimed at preparing for a potential peace treaty with the United States.

“The amendment may well be a chance to establish Kim’s status as the signer of a peace treaty when it comes while projecting the image of the country as a normal state,” Mr. Hong said.

Washington had balked at signing a comprehensive peace treaty before North Korea takes substantial steps toward denuclearisation, but US officials have signaled they may be willing to conclude a more limited agreement to reduce tensions, open liaison offices, and move toward normalizing relations.

Denuclearisation talks between the United States and North Korea have stalled, although fresh talks with Pyongyang are supposed to take place this month.

North Korea has frozen nuclear bomb and long-range missile testing since 2017. But it tested new short-range missiles after a second summit with the United States in February broke down, and US officials believe it has expanded its arsenal by continuing to produce bomb fuel and missiles.

The new constitution continued to describe North Korea as a nuclear weapons state.

In reality, Mr. Kim, a third-generation hereditary leader, rules North Korea with an iron fist and the title change will mean little to the way he wields power.

Source: https://www.thenational.ae/world/asia/kim-jong-un-becomes-north-korea-s-head-of-state-under-new-constitution-1.885460

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