N Korea tested ‘tactical guided weapons’

SEOUL: North Korean state media said on Sunday that leader Kim Jong Un had overseen a rocket and tactical guided weapons test, after the drill on Saturday raised concerns Pyongyang was escalating provocations with US nuclear negotiations deadlocked.

But the United States seemed to seek a conciliatory tone in response, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying on Sunday that Washington still saw "a path forward" in the denuclearisation process.

The North last carried out a missile test in November 2017, before a rapid diplomatic rapprochement saw tensions ease on the peninsula and a series of summits.

A return to missile launches would be likely to infuriate US President Donald Trump, but the North’s official KCNA news agency shied away from the term in its report, saying Kim had ordered a "strike drill" involving "long-range multiple rocket launchers" -- which are not targeted by UN sanctions resolutions -- and unspecified "tactical guided weapons".

Seoul’s defence ministry said Sunday an analysis of the launch indicated Pyongyang had tested "240-mm and 300-mm multiple rocket launchers and a new type of tactical guided weapons with a range of around 70 to 240 kilometres".

The United States and North Korea have been at loggerheads since the collapse of a Trump-Kim summit in February, when the two sides clashed over sanctions and the extent of Pyongyang’s concessions on its atomic arsenal.

But despite the latest sabre-rattling from Pyongyang, Trump insisted that a breakthrough was possible. "Kim Jong Un fully realises the great economic potential of North Korea, & will do nothing to interfere or end it," Trump tweeted Saturday.

"He also knows that I am with him & does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen!" The US leader did not elaborate on Kim’s promise. Pompeo, speaking on Sunday on ABC, said the rockets were relatively short range, had crossed no international boundary, had landed in waters east of North Korea "and didn’t present a threat to the United States or to South Korea or Japan."

He called the situation serious and said the US always knew the road to denuclearisation would be "bumpy and a long one." But, Pompeo added, "we still believe there’s a path forward".

The state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Sunday carried 16 photos of the weapons test on its front page, including a picture of a grim-looking Kim clutching his binoculars in an observation post as well as several images of projectiles shooting skywards.