NK still committed to advancing denuke talks: ministry
People watch a TV screen showing an image of a ground test of North Korea's rocket engine during a news program at the Seoul Station in Seoul, Monday. AP-Yonhap
By Kim Yoo-chul
By Kim Yoo-chul
Despite an apparent signal toward resuming the activities of a missile-testing site which North Korea had earlier promised to dismantle, the North is still committed to advancing its denuclearization dialogue, the South's unification ministry said, Monday.
“Because Washington and Pyongyang are still committed to advancing the denuclearization talks, Seoul will try to apply necessary measures and all efforts for development while keeping the dialogue momentum alive,” the ministry spokesman Lee Sang-min told reporters in a briefing.
The ministry official was responding to questions about the reported missile test which the North's official KCNA claimed was the North conducting a “very important” test at its Sohae satellite launch site.
With only a couple of weeks left before the year-end deadline presented by North Korea on denuclearization talks with Washington, senior North Korean officials strongly warned the United States that it could take a “new path” unless Pyongyang is given visible conciliatory economic benefits.
Political analysts and intelligence sources here didn't rule out the possibility of North Korea testing a long-range inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) anytime within this month.
“The South Korean government is very closely monitoring the North's suspicious activities on its Sohae testing site and sharing information with U.S. intelligence agencies and relevant government agencies,” spokesman Lee said.
Separately, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun-soo said the ministry is “well aware and acknowledges” the announcement by the North's official KCNA and added the ministry is keeping a close eye on the latest activities happening at the North's major missile launch sites.
“I can't tell you about the specifics regarding the monitoring. But we are teaming up with the United States on moves at major testing sites in North Korea including the Dongchang-ri site,” she told reporters in a regular briefing. The “very important test” was believed to be testing the efficacy of solid fuel to help ICBMs fly longer and decrease launch time, according to intelligence sources.
Regarding whether the “very important test” was a breach of the joint military agreement made between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang, last year, the ministry spokeswoman said: “We need to analyze it first.”
On CBS' Face the Nation, early Monday (KST), the U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said resuming tests “would be a mistake on the part of North Korea. It doesn't end well for them if they do.”
“If North Korea takes a different path than the one it's promised … we've got plenty of tools in the toolkit,” O'Brien said. He, however, didn't specify what “toolkit” means. On a related note, Pentagon chief Mark Esper urged the North to back to the negotiating table.
“I'm not going to comment on hypotheticals. ... We'll see. I think that talks are always open. I've said, Secretary Pompeo has said, and certainly President Trump has said, we want to sit down, we want to have negotiations, and we want to reach the point where we have denuclearized North Korea,” Esper said in an interview with Fox News.
In a rare move, Cheong Wa Dae said no National Security Council (NSC) meeting had been convened and the presidential office said it had no comments on the North's repeated missile tests.