Trump says North Korea talks going ahead despite missile test
At a historic summit in June, US President Donald Trump and Kim signed a vaguely-worded statement on denuclearisation
AFP/File / SAUL LOEB
October 04, 2019
US President Donald Trump on Thursday brushed off North Korea's testing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, saying that planned talks with Pyongyang will go ahead anyway.
"They want to talk and we'll be talking to them," Trump told reporters at the White House in his first public reaction to North Korea's announcement of what it called a "new phase" in its arsenal.
"We'll see," Trump added, when asked if the missile test had gone too far for him.
The test was by far the most significant since Pyongyang first began a dialogue with Washington in 2018 over pressure to give up its nuclear weapons. Analysts said the new capability marks a significant step in boosting that program.
Trump has said he has no problem with a string of short range rocket tests conducted by North Korea, calling them "normal."
But a proven submarine-based missile capability would take the North's arsenal to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and a second-strike capability in the event of an attack on its military bases.
"The new-type ballistic missile was fired in vertical mode" on Wednesday in the waters off Wonsan Bay, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, identifying the weapon as a Pukguksong-3.
"The successful new-type SLBM test-firing comes to be of great significance as it ushered in a new phase in containing the outside forces' threat," it added.
The North's leader Kim Jong Un sent "warm congratulations" to research units involved in the launch.
Kim has personally supervised recent land-based missile tests.
Photos carried by the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed a black and white missile emerging from the water and appearing to shoot into the sky.
The images also showed a small towing vessel next to the missile, which analysts said indicates the test was conducted from a submersible barge rather than an actual submarine, and that the system was in its early stages.
Ankit Panda of the Federation of American Scientists called it Pyongyang's longest-range-capable solid-fuel missile, adding Wednesday's launch was "unambiguously the first nuclear-capable missile test since November 2017."
"Kim Jong Un's 'rocket men' kept busy during the diplomatic charm offensives of 2018-2019," said Panda.
The North carried out a successful test of the solid-fuel Pukguksong-1, also known as KN-11, in August 2016, which flew around 300 miles (500 kilometers).
In July, North Korean state media had published pictures of Kim Jong Un inspecting a new type of submarine that also showed a poster of the Pukguksong-3 on a wall, fueling concerns that Pyongyang was pushing ahead with an SLBM program.
Tokyo said a part of Wednesday's missile landed in waters within Japan's exclusive economic zone -- a 125-mile band around Japanese territory.
Washington voiced alarm, with a State Department spokesperson calling on Pyongyang "to refrain from provocations" and "remain engaged in substantive and sustained negotiations" aimed at bringing stability and denuclearization.
North Korea is banned from ballistic missile launches by United Nations Security Council resolutions.
- Working-level talks -
The launch came ahead of planned resumption of working-level talks between Pyongyang and Washington which is slated for later this week in an undisclosed location.
North Korea frequently couples diplomatic overtures with military moves as a way of maintaining pressure on negotiating partners, analysts say, and may believe this weapons system gives it added leverage.
Pyongyang tested what it called a "super-large" rocket launcher last month just hours after the North said was willing to resume working-level talks with Washington.
Kim Dong-yub, a researcher at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies, noted Kim's absence at Wednesday's launch -- a rarity as the North Korean leader has been present at all recent weapons tests.
"It's likely not unrelated to the talks between Pyongyang and Washington currently under way," he said, adding that Kim was trying to carry out weapons modernization without jeopardizing dialogue with the US.
Negotiations have been deadlocked since a second summit between Kim and Trump in February ended without a deal.
The two agreed to restart dialogue during an impromptu meeting at the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas in June, but those talks have yet to materialize.
Pyongyang also carried out several weapons tests since the meeting that have been downplayed by Trump, who dismissed them as "small" and insisted his personal ties with Kim remained good.
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