U.S. officials still hope for talks after latest North Korean missile tests
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea’s latest missile launches did not violate a pledge its leader Kim Jong Un made to U.S. President Donald Trump, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday, but efforts to resume denuclearization talks remained in doubt.
Kim oversaw the first test firing of a “new-type large-caliber 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 denuclearization 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,” U.S. 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 denuclearization 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 demilitarized 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, the Yonhap news agency reported.
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.
U.S. officials have played down the tests. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this week he still hoped that talks would start soon, including possibly on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian security forum in Bangkok this week.
However, Bolton said there had been no response. “We’re still waiting to hear from North Korea,” he said.
A summit between Trump and Kim in Vietnam in February collapsed after they failed to reconcile differences between U.S. demands for North Korea’s complete denuclearization and North Korean demands for sanctions relief.
‘FAT TARGET’
The photos released by North Korea appeared to show a type of multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS). Such systems form a major part of North Korea’s conventional arsenal, according to a 2018 assessment by the South’s defense ministry.
The North Korean military has nearly 5,500 MLRS, along with 8,600 field guns, 4,300 tanks, and 2,500 armored vehicles, the ministry said.
Wednesday’s test verified the combat effectiveness of the overall rocket system and Kim predicted “it would be an inescapable distress to the forces becoming a fat target of the weapon”, KCNA said.
It said the rocket system would play a major role in ground military operations. Such operations would most likely be directed at South Korea.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the North had fired ballistic missiles that flew about 250 km (155 miles).
The missiles launched last week were a different type of short-range ballistic missile, which experts said were designed to make interception difficult.
Ballistic missiles would violate U.N. resolutions designed to press North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Britain, Germany and France have asked the U.N. Security Council to meet on Thursday to discuss the missile launches, diplomats said.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres believed the launches were “just another reminder of the importance of restarting talks on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula”, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
The South Korean military also said a North Korean soldier had crossed the DMZ on Wednesday and asked to defect to the South.
South Korean nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon met U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) conference in Bangkok.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said they discussed the missile tests and vowed diplomatic efforts for an early restart of working-level talks.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho canceled a visit to the ASEAN forum but Pompeo said the Americans were still open to a meeting.
China welcomed the U.S. readiness to restart the working-level talks, top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said in Bangkok, following talks with Pompeo.
The United States does not plan to make changes to this month’s military drill with South Korea, a senior U.S. defense official said, despite the missile tests.
“We have to do two things: we have to give the diplomats appropriate space for their diplomacy and help create an environment that is conducive to the talks when they resume ... and we have to maintain readiness,” the U.S. official said.
Reporting by Josh Smith in SEOUL and David Alexander in WASHINGTON; Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Cate Cadell in BANGKOK, David Brunnstrom and Idrees Ali in WASHINGTON, and Michelle Nichols in NEW YORK; Editing by Paul Tait, Robert Birsel
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