North Korea slams US, hints at resuming nuclear, ICBM tests

Source: Associated Press

North Korea slams US, hints at resuming nuclear, ICBM tests

By KIM TONG-HYUNG
January 20, 2022

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Accusing the United States of hostility and threats, North Korea on Thursday said it will consider restarting “all temporally-suspended activities” it had paused during its diplomacy with the Trump administration, in an apparent threat to resume testing of nuclear explosives and long-range missiles.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said leader Kim Jong Un presided over a Politburo meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party where officials set policy goals for “immediately bolstering” military capabilities to counter the Americans’ “hostile moves.”

Officials gave instructions to “reconsider in an overall scale the trust-building measures that we took on our own initiative … and to promptly examine the issue of restarting all temporally-suspended activities,” the KCNA said.

Experts say Kim is reviving an old playbook of brinkmanship to extract concessions from Washington and neighbors as he grapples with a decaying economy crippled by the pandemic, mismanagement and U.S.-led sanctions over his nuclear ambitions.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/united-states-north-korea-south-korea-diplomacy-729f373f34d8e637b7c9fe9b5826c562


People watch a TV showing a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shown during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. Accusing the United States of hostility and threats, North Korea on Thursday said it will consider restarting "all temporally-suspended activities" it had paused during its diplomacy with the Trump administration, in an apparent threat to resume testing of nuclear explosives and long-range missiles. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)