Kim Says North Korea Not Bound to Test Freeze, Built New Weapon

(Bloomberg) -- Kim Jong Un declared that he was no longer bound by his pledge to freeze major weapons tests, saying the regime would soon debut a “new strategic weapon” and take “shocking” action toward the U.S.The North Korean leader told a gathering of party leaders in Pyongyang that the new weapon system had been “perfectly carried out” by scientists, designers and “workers in the field of the munitions industry,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. The comments were released early New Year’s Day in North Korea, an occasion when Kim has previously made a televised address announcing big policy shifts.“The world will witness a new strategic weapon to be possessed by the DPRK in the near future,” KCNA said, citing Kim and referring to the country’s formal name.While showing his frustration for sputtering nuclear talks with the U.S., Kim still left an opening for President Donald Trump by not explicitly stating he would resume tests or break off the nuclear negotiations that have seen three face-to-face meeting since June 2018. Kim expressed his anger at joint U.S.-South Korean militarily drills, new U.S. weapons being deployed on the peninsula and sanctions, which have been choking North Korea’s paltry economy.Kim said the U.S. actions had forced him to reconsider a moratorium on tests of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles that could deliver them to the U.S. “He stressed that under such condition, there is no ground for us to get unilaterally bound to the commitment any longer,” KCNA said.“North Korea’s moratoriums are meant to be broken,” said Sung-yoon Lee, a professor of U.S.-East Asia relations at Tufts University’s Fletcher School. “North Korea always lays the blame for its actions on the U.S. Kim Jong Un, I believe is setting the stage for the next big provocation to come.”It was unclear whether Kim would also deliver a separate new year’s speech. Kim could replace his annual address with a policy statement from the plenary, the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported before KCNA issued the report.In a previous New Year’s address, Kim said he planned to resume tests of ICBMs, but no mention was made of new testing in the latest report. Kim didn’t specify what the new strategic weapon was, or when it would be deployed.How Kim Jong Un Keeps Advancing His Nuclear Program: QuickTakeNorth Korea had expressed increasing frustration with the U.S. since Trump walked out of their last formal summit in February. Kim resumed launches of mostly short-range ballistic missiles at a record-setting pace and repeatedly warned that his freeze on tests on ICBMs might be coming to an end. Trump was not mentioned by name in the report, a sign that Kim has not resorted to the name-calling that punctuated their relationship ahead of their detente.“In the future, the more the U.S. stalls for time and hesitates in the settlement of the DPRK-U.S. relations, the more helpless it will find itself before the might of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Kim told the four-day party gathering that ended Tuesday.‘Fell in Love’While Trump in 2018 claimed that North Korea was “no longer a nuclear threat” and that he and Kim “fell in love,” a deal between the two countries has remained elusive.Neither side can agree on the terms of disarmament or U.S.-imposed economic sanctions. Meanwhile, North Korea has continued to conduct missile tests and build its nuclear arsenal.North Korea had suggested a “Christmas gift” would be forthcoming after demanding additional concessions as part of the stalled nuclear talks. Earlier this year, Kim’s regime set a Dec. 31 deadline for a breakthrough. Trump has downplayed any threat, saying on Christmas Eve that the U.S. will “deal with it” and joking that Kim’s “gift” could be a “beautiful vase.”Robert O’Brien, Trump’s national security adviser, said in December that the U.S. will be ready to respond should Kim fire additional long-range missiles or conduct further nuclear weapons tests.“We’ll reserve judgment, but the United States will take action as we do in these situations,” O’Brien said on ABC’s “This Week.” “If Kim Jong Un takes that approach, we’ll be extraordinarily disappointed and we’ll demonstrate that disappointment.”Kim, however, had some ominous words for the U.S. “He said that we will never allow the impudent U.S. to abuse the DPRK-U.S. dialogue for meeting its sordid aim but will shift to a shocking actual action to make it pay for the pains sustained by our people so far and for the development so far restrained,” KCNA reported.\--With assistance from Shinhye Kang.To contact the reporters on this story: John Harney in Washington at jharney2@bloomberg.net;Jihye Lee in Seoul at jlee2352@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jon HerskovitzFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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