Kim Jong-un announces end of North Korean nuclear test moratorium

It is a clear message for the New Year. In the absence of progress in the negotiations with the United States, the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced the end of the moratorium on the nuclear tests and the tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles which Pyongyang observed, reported Wednesday January 1 North Korean state agency KCNA.

"We have no reason to continue to be bound unilaterally by this engagement," said KCNA, reporting remarks by Kim Jong-un to officials in his ruling party. "The world will discover in the near future a new strategic weapon that North Korea holds."

During his first meeting with the President of the United States on June 12, 2018 in Singapore, Kim Jong-un had promised the dismantling of his nuclear program, but no progress has been made since and the second summit, which took place on February 27 and 28 in Hanoi, ended in failure.

Since then, negotiations have stalled, and North Korea has said that if it does not have US concessions before the end of the year, it will embark on a "new path".

"Thug Behavior"

Before the central committee of his Workers' Party, Kim Jong-un made it clear that North Korea was ready to continue living under an international sanctions regime to preserve its nuclear capacity. "The United States is making demands that go against the fundamental interests of our state and behaving like a thug," he said, quoted by KCNA as saying.

Washington "Conducted Dozens Of Joint Military Exercises (With South Korea) That President (Donald Trump) Personally Promised To Stop", Sent High-Tech Military Equipment To The South And Tightened Sanctions against the North, he added.

"We will never sell our dignity", he assured, promising an action "staggering to make pay (in the United States) the price of the pain undergone by our people".

With AFP and Reuters

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