The dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, said Wednesday that he sees no reason to continue freezing his nuclear program and his tests with long-range missiles, as he agreed to do last year in his negotiation with the US president Donald Trump
In addition, he has announced that he will soon present to the world " a new strategic weapon ", on which he has not given details. In his statements, released today by North Korean state media, he has nevertheless left the door open to diplomacy, pressing the United States to change its policies.
As the NBC network reports, North Korea did not launch any missiles or conduct any atomic tests in 2018, which Trump considered a success of his policy of approaching the dictator, although it is not clear that this was the case.
A year earlier, in 2017, North Korea had tested its first intercontinental missile, supposedly capable of flying through space and hitting the United States with its most powerful weapon to date, a hydrogen bomb.
In September of that year the last nuclear test was produced. Trump then changed his rhetoric, and stopped ridiculing him and threatening to annihilate him to praise him as a statesman and say they had "fallen in love . "
Now, however, Kim believes that the military tests planned by the United States and South Korea in November and the imposition of new sanctions " have cooled " his motivation to freeze his military program.
Trump has asked the dictator to respect the agreements reached at the Singapore summit in June 2018, the first time they met (another similar one later in Vietnam failed ).
“Look, he likes me, we get along,” said the president on December 31 at his residence in Mar-a-Lago (Florida), “but we signed a contract, he signed an agreement talking about denuclearization. I think he's a man of his word, and we're going to find out, I think he's a man of this world. ”
North Korea had already promised to send “ a Christmas gift ” to the United States, perhaps referring to a nuclear test, although Trump said Tuesday: “I know they are sending certain messages about Christmas gifts, and I hope yours is a beautiful vase, that's what I would like, a vase. ”
Experts cited by NBC, however, say that Kim will not leave his atomic arsenal, with up to 40 nuclear warheads, as he considers it key to the survival of his dynasty, which has been ruling this impoverished country for 70 years.