• North Korea: new "crucial test" at the Sohae launch site
  • South Korea: "Pyongyang has launched a new bullet"

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December 16, 2019The United States will not abandon the nuclear talks table with North Korea and launch an appeal in Pyongyang to return to negotiations. "The United States does not have a deadline," said the US special representative for the North Korean dossier, Stephen Biegun, today in Seoul for talks with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Do-hoon, a few days before the deadline of end of year set by Pyongyang to find a negotiated solution. Biegun is in South Korea for a three-day view and also met with South Korean president, Moon Jae-in. "We aim to implement the commitments made by the two leaders during their meeting", explained Biegun, in reference to the Singapore summit, in June 2018, between the US president, Donald Trump, and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, the only summit to have produced a broad agreement on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. "It's time to do our job. Let's do it. We're here, and you know how to find us," Biegun concluded.

The United States and North Korea had held a new round of negotiations in Stockholm in early October, but the talks were wrecked after hours, and Pyongyang had accused Washington of not having an adequate plan to resolve the stalling of the negotiations, which extends from the second summit between Trump and Kim, finished without an agreement on denuclearization. Since then, North Korean weapons tests have resumed: the last one dates back to last Friday, when the Pyongyang media announced a new "decisive test" at the Sohae satellite launch station. Instead, on Thursday, the United States tested a medium-range ballistic missile from a base north-west of Los Angeles, which ended up in the Pacific Ocean. The test was the second after the exit from the Inf treaty with Russia, which was followed by a warning to North Korea to renounce hostile acts and threats launched by the US ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft.