Seoul: North Korea said Thursday that it had test-fired a new type of “tactical guided weapon,” its first such test in nearly half a year, and demanded that Washington remove Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from nuclear negotiations. The test, which didn’t appear to be of a banned mid- or long-range ballistic missile that could scuttle negotiations, allows North Korea to show its people it is pushing ahead with weapons development while also reassuring domestic military officials worried that diplomacy with Washington signals weakness.
Separately, the North Korean Foreign Ministry accused Pompeo of playing down the significance of comments by leader Kim Jong Un, who said last week that Washington has until the end of the year to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement to salvage the high-stakes nuclear diplomacy. Both the demand for Pompeo’s removal from the talks and the weapon test point to North Korea’s displeasure with the deadlocked negotiations.
In a statement issued under the name of Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the American Affairs Department at the Foreign Ministry, North Korea accused Pompeo of “talking nonsense” and misrepresenting Kim’s comments. During a speech at Texas A&M on Monday, Pompeo said Kim promised to denuclearize during his first summit with President Donald Trump and that US officials were working with the North Koreans to “chart a path forward so we can get there.” The North Korean statement said Pompeo was “misrepresenting the meaning of our requirement” for the negotiations to be finalised by the year’s end, and referred to his “talented skill of fabricating stories.”
Kim Jong-un to meet Putin in Russia this month
Moscow: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will pay a visit to Russia later this month for his first meeting with President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Thursday. Kim will make the visit at Putin’s invitation, TASS news agency and other Russian news outlets quoted the Kremlin as announcing in a press release. The report did not give further details, including dates and the venue of the summit between Kim and Putin. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that the two leaders would hold their first summit in Russia’s Far East city of Vladivostok next week when Putin travels to the Far East on his way to China for an international conference.
Japan’s Kyodo News, citing unidentified officials sources, reported that Kim plans to make a three-day visit to Russia beginning on Wednesday. Kyodo said that Kim plans to travel by train and hold a summit with Putin on Russky Island off the city of Vladivostok. Russian media reported on the widely expected summit, citing some restrictions being imposed at facilities in the city bordering the North. Japan’s Fuji News Network also aired footage of a man presumed to be leader Kim’s protocol chief, Kim Chang-son, checking around a train station in the Russian city.
