North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visits Russia on April 25, 2019. - Kommersant / SIPA

New brilliance from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The latter announced the end of the moratorium on nuclear tests and on intercontinental ballistic missile tests that Pyongyang was observing, reported on Wednesday the North Korean state agency KCNA received in Seoul. "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."

#KimJongUn says it will continue to develop strategic weapons unless the United States abandons its hostile policy. #coreedunord #NewYearChallenge #Vows pic.twitter.com/nxTNJ5m8vL

- Lina Sankari (@LinaSankari) December 31, 2019

Kim Jong-un said in 2018 that North Korea no longer needed nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile tests. His statements on Wednesday seem to overturn nuclear diplomacy for the past two years, with US President Donald Trump regularly referring to the "promise" that the North Korean leader would have made to him.

Kim Jong-un threatens the United States with "staggering" action

But talks between the two capitals seem to have stalled since the failure of a Kim-Trump summit in Hanoi in February. Before the central committee of his Workers' Party, Kim made it clear that North Korea was ready to continue living under an international sanctions regime to preserve its nuclear capacity. "The United States makes demands contrary to the fundamental interests of our state and adopts a thug behavior," he said, quoted by KCNA.

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 said, promising action "staggering to make pay (in the United States) the price of the pain suffered by our people."

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