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North Korea hints at possible nuclear test resumption

2022-01-20T07:07:56.070Z


Foreign countries have long feared that North Korea could conduct nuclear tests again. The Politburo in Pyongyang responded to the announcement of new sanctions with a vague threat.


Enlarge image

TV broadcast of a North Korean missile test in South Korea

Photo: JUNG YEON-JE / AFP

North Korea has tested an unusual number of missiles in recent months.

According to the regime, at least four hypersonic rockets have been fired into the air since the beginning of the year alone.

After new US sanctions, Pyongyang has now indirectly threatened to test nuclear bombs and ICBMs again.

At a meeting on Wednesday, the Labor Party's Politburo ordered a review of the confidence-building measures taken by North Korea itself and "immediately consider resuming all temporarily suspended activities," state media reported on Thursday.

Experts saw this as an allusion to the 2018 test ban on long-range missiles and nuclear weapons set by North Korea itself.

Accusation: US government is pursuing "hostile policies"

After the reports, the party meeting chaired by ruler Kim Jong Un discussed how future measures against the United States should be directed.

The US government was accused of pursuing hostile policies and having reached "a danger line."

The task of national defense must therefore be to strengthen "the physical means by which US hostile actions are controlled."

There have long been fears abroad that North Korea could resume its nuclear tests.

Kim had already declared at the end of 2019 that Pyongyang was no longer bound by its test moratorium.

The background was the lack of progress in the US negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program.

The US Treasury Department recently passed new sanctions against North Korea.

Among other things, five North Koreans were put on the sanctions list, whom the ministry accused of procuring goods for their country's mass destruction and missile programs.

In addition, the USA intends to impose new sanctions through the United Nations.

The US was responding to six short-range ballistic missile tests conducted by North Korea since last September.

UN resolutions prohibit the country from such tests.

Depending on the design, ballistic missiles transport conventional, biological, chemical or even nuclear warheads.

muk/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-01-20

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