North Korea Conducts ‘Crucial Test’ for Nuclear Deterrent

(Bloomberg) -- North Korea said it successfully conducted a “crucial” test at a long-range projectile launch site and had boosted its nuclear-deterrent capabilities. It didn’t provide any details about the exercise.

The news follows a North Korean announcement last week that it held a “very important test,” without elaborating. South Korea’s military believes the North tested an engine for its ballistic missiles last Saturday.

Another successful test was conducted at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground from 22:41 to 22:48 on Dec. 13, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said in a statement Saturday, citing a spokesman for the Academy of Defense Science. The ruling Workers’ Party of Korea’s Central Committee congratulated the officials, according to the report, which didn’t say whether the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, was at the site.

The recent tests have provided “priceless data” that will be used to develop another strategic weapon “for reliably restraining and overpowering the nuclear threat of the U.S.,” Pak Jong Chon, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), said in a statement Saturday published on KCNA.

South Korean and U.S. military officials are closely monitoring activities in North Korea and analyzing what was tested, Seoul’s Defense Ministry said in a statement, without elaborating.

Break Deadlock

Pyongyang’s latest tests put further pressure on the U.S. to try to break the deadlock in negotiations between the two countries after working-level talks in Stockholm in October collapsed. North Korea is seeking some form of compensation in return for a promise to denuclearize, and Kim’s regime has unilaterally imposed a year-end deadline for the U.S. and threatened to take a “new path” next year if talks fail.

The U.S, and its allies will only spend the year-end in peace, if they “hold off any words and deeds rattling us,” Pak said.

U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun is scheduled to visit Seoul to discuss the situation with his South Korean counterpart Monday.

There have been reports of continuous activity at the launch site. Work was still going on at the Vertical Engine Test Stand at Sohae, 38 North reported, citing commercial satellite imagery from Dec. 11. Kim told U.S. President Donald Trump previously that he had shut down the facility.

The success of a series of scientific exercises will be used to further increase North Korea’s “reliable strategic nuclear deterrent,” KCNA said. Pyongyang said when it announced the test a week ago that it would play a key part in changing the country’s strategic position in the near future.

Earlier in the day, Chosun Ilbo newspaper cited a South Korean military official as saying that Kim’s next move “could be testing an ICBM engine under Kim Jong Un’s presence” or firing a submarine-launched ballistic missile.

South Korea’s military authorities also think Pyongyang may launch a Pukguksong-3 -- the new missile that it tested in early October -- into the West Sea on a normal trajectory instead of a lofted angle, the newspaper said.

Earlier this week, South Korea’s Defense Minister Jeong Kyung-doo told reporters in Sydney that he is concerned about the North’s “engine-test activity” at the Sohae site.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kanga Kong in Seoul at kkong50@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stanley James at sjames8@bloomberg.net, James Amott

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