North Korea taunts US with another ‘nuclear missile test’ just a day after it claimed it was ready for weapons talks
The top secret rocket test was conducted in the city of Yun Song
TRIGGER-happy North Korea has conducted another controversial ICBM rocket engine test - just a day after it claimed it was willing to put the brakes on its nuclear programme.
It’s the first engine test since the hermit kingdom conducted three in March as it works towards its aim of having a nuke capable of reaching the west coast of the United States.
Yesterday we reported how Kim Jong-un was said to be willing to sit down with its sworn enemy the to hash out a deal that would see a freeze on future tests.
The news of the new test also comes as another US official said Wednesday there are signs of increased activity at North Korea’s lone nuclear test site.
“There are more people and more cars but nobody knows what that means,” said the official.
North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests since 2006, including two last year.
President Trump had hoped China would help deescalate tensions in the region following a series of ballistic missile tests.
But the US leader hinted this week that Beijing had failed to reign in Kim Jong-un.
“While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!” said Trump in a tweet earlier this week.
At the State Department, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis hosted Chinese counterparts.
“China understands that the United States regards North Korea as our top security threat,” Tillerson told reporters Wednesday.
“We reiterated to China that they have a diplomatic responsibility to exert much great economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime if they want to prevent further escalation in the region.”
Relations with North Korea deteriorated further after student Otto Warmbier returned to the United States last week after being held for 17-months on charges of subversion after allegedly stealing a communist propaganda poster from his hotel.
Warmbier died on Monday. Friends and family members held a public funeral in Wyoming, Ohio, on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the latest American effort to test its shoot-down capability failed on Wednesday night, according to a statement from the US Missile Defense Agency.
A medium-range ballistic missile was launched from a test range in Hawaii at 7:20 pm local time, but the interceptor missile fired at sea from USS John Paul Jones, a guided-missile destroyer, missed the target.