North Korea plans to test nuclear weapons, says US

Pyongyang is ignoring the proposals of United States for talks and is planning its first nuclear weapons test in nearly five years for the April 15 holiday, the State Department’s top envoy to North Korea.

Sung Kim, special representative for North Koreasaid Washington believes Pyongyang may be planning a demonstration of its growing nuclear weapons capabilities on next week’s holiday, when it will celebrate the 110th anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s birthfounder of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

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“We are concerned that in connection with the upcoming April 15 anniversary, the DPRK may be tempted to take another provocative action,” Kim told reporters about North Korea’s recent ballistic missile tests.

“I don’t want to speculate too much, but I think it could be another missile launch, it could be a nuclear test,” said

North Korea has conducted several nuclear weapons tests since 2006. The last one was in 2017.

Pyongyang has ignored Washington’s proposals to resume talks on withdrawing all nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula, Kim said.

“We did not get any response from Pyongyang, which is very disappointing, because we sent many messages, both public and private, inviting them to dialogue without conditions,” said.

Kim also said China and Russia were not helping the US president’s bid to resume talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Talks to contain Pyongyang’s nuclear plans gained momentum under former President Donald Trump but then stalled.

Since Biden took office in January 2021, North Korea conducted 13 missile tests. The last one was last month with a ballistic but potentially capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and capable of reaching the eastern United States.

Source: Elcomercio

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