North Korea set to resume nuclear test program

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AA) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Wednesday said he would end the suspension of nuclear and long-range missile tests he committed to last year, warning his country will soon introduce "new strategic weapons," official media said

Addressing the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, Kim said there is no reason for his country to be unilaterally bound to the commitment, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported

"In the past two years alone when the DPRK [North Korea] took preemptive and crucial measures of halting its nuclear test and ICBM test-fire and shutting down the nuclear test ground to build confidence between the DPRK and the U.S., the U.S. far from responding to the former with appropriate measures, conducted tens of big and small joint military drills which its president personally promised to stop and threatened the former militarily through the shipment of ultra-modern warfare equipment into South Korea," the agency quoted Kim as saying.

Last September, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed fresh sanctions on North Korea, critically blocking individuals, companies, and financial institutions from doing business with that country.

"The U.S. also took more than 10 independent sanctions measures only to show the world once again that it remained unchanged in its ambition to stifle the former," Kim said

Kim warned that in the near future the world will witness a new strategic weapon from North Korea.

However, Kim still left room for negations with Washington and said that the scope and depth of bolstering their deterrent will be properly coordinated depending on the U.S. attitude to his country.

Since becoming U.S. president in 2017, Trump has met with Kim three times in a bid to persuade him to give up his nuclear and missile programs. But talks have stalled and Kim had given Trump until the end of 2019 to make concessions.