North Korea ends self-imposed moratorium, promises to engage in nuclear tests By Phillip A. Howard
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un recently announced the end of a moratorium on nuclear tests, further straining the delicate relationship set forth by Mr. Kim and President Trump during past meetings.
At a meeting of top party officials in North Korea, Mr. Kim said that the world will see a new weapon “in the near future” that “will shift to a shocking actual action.” Mr. Kim also threatened the United States, claiming that the United states will “pay for the pains sustained by our people” after “gangster-like acts” have slowed economic growth within the nation.
These threats were shrugged off by top American officials. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was hopeful that Mr. Kim “will make the right decision, and he’ll choose peace and prosperity over conflict and war,” during a recent interview with Fox News.
Photo by AP
U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said that Mr. Kim’s words “would not be helpful” in continuing negotiations. The U.S. has “refrained from significant military exercises” with South Korea and have “done the things necessary to create the conditions for positive talks.” Mr. O’Brien was hopeful that these actions will be seen by North Korea as positives, and they “will not do something that makes it more difficult for both of us to succeed in the denuclearization talks.”
President Trump, speaking from his Florida resort this past Friday, stated that both he and Mr. Kim had a “good working relationship” and called Mr. Kim a “man of his word,” referring to the June 2018 meeting between both men in Singapore.
Tensions have remained as North Korea ramped up weapons testing through last year. Even under its own moratorium, in May of last year, North Korea launched a total of 27 short-range ballistic missiles as well as conducted two ground tests in December, labelling these moves as a “nuclear deterrent.”
Image by Rodong Sinmun
The recent declaration by Mr. Kim has generated concern that North Korea is even more serious about increasing nuclearization. Cheong Seong-Chang, director of the Center for North Korea Studies at the Sejong Institute, said that Mr. Kim “is accepting the stalled negotiations between the U.S. and the long-term sanctions imposed on North Korea” as a way of “announcing a new direction to enhance the country’s nuclear and missile capabilities.”
Leif-Eric Easly, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, sees the declaration as an effort to extend negotiations. “The change in format from a broadcast new year speech to reports at a plenary meeting may be an effort to buy time as North Korea’s new ‘strategic weapon’ may not be ready,” Easly said. For the time being, Easly sees that “North Korea may focus on sanctions evasion rather than sanctions relief, and replace denuclearization diplomacy with strategic deterrence and nuclear blackmail.”
Phillip Howard is a graduate student at Utica College
