"Completely Reconsider Trust in the U.S." North Korea Hints at Plans to Resume Nuclear and ICBM Tests

[경향신문]

On January 20, the Korean Central News Agency announced that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended the sixth Political Bureau Meeting of the eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and discussed North Korea’s response to the U.S. Pyongyang, Korean Central News Agency/Yonhap News

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) hinted at intentions to resume its nuclear and missile tests claiming it would reconsider its preemptive measures to establish trust with the U.S.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced on January 20 that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended the sixth Political Bureau Meeting of the eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, listened to a report of the situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula and international affairs, and discussed the direction of North Korea’s future response to the U.S.

The North Korean state media reported, “The Political Bureau Meeting relisted national defense policy tasks to promptly strengthen and develop stronger physical means to firmly overpower hostile actions against the DPRK by the U.S., which are becoming more intense every day.” It further reported that the Political Bureau gave an instruction to completely reconsider the trust-building measures that North Korea voluntarily took on its own initiative and to promptly examine the issue of restarting all temporally suspended activities. This seems to suggest that North Korea will resume the nuclear and missile tests, which it had suspended as a measure to build trust with the U.S.

Earlier, in a Plenary Meeting of the party’s Central Committee in April 2018, North Korea declared it would abandon its nuclear test site and suspend nuclear tests and test launches of inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM).

KCNA said, “The Political Bureau evaluated that despite our efforts to continue to ease tensions after the North Korea-U.S. summit in Singapore, the hostile policy and military threat by the U.S. have reached a dangerous level, one that cannot be overlooked any longer.” According to the North Korean state media, the Politburo meeting concluded that North Korea “must move on to practical actions to more reliably and surely build physical power in order to defend the nation’s dignity, sovereignty, and interests.”

KCNA further reported, “In the meeting, a report was given on how the U.S. unfairly raised an issue with our rightful exercise of sovereignty and engaged in reckless schemes.” It continued and said, “The U.S. viciously showed vile disrespect for our country and indulged in rash acts imposing no less than twenty independent sanctions.” The North Korean state media argued that the incumbent U.S. administration was stubbornly hanging on to schemes “to castrate” North Korea’s right to self-defense and added, “The hostile policy against the DPRK will continue in the future as long as the hostile U.S. imperialism exists.”