N. Korea shuns dialogue opportunities with U.S. and fires missiles

  • 5 years ago
北, 북미 실무협상•고위급회담 무산시키고 미사일 발사... 의도는?

At a time when there's growing anticipation for a quick resumption of Pyeongyang-Washington dialogue, North Korea fires short-range missiles.
Why now... and what's the regime's motive behind this move?
Oh Jung-hee delves deeper to find out more.
The downturn started when North Korea lashed out at South Korea and the U.S. for scheduling a joint military exercise next month.
Three weeks after North Korea's Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump had a friendly chat at the inter-Korean border,... the North slammed the exercise last week through its state media.
Saying the exercise would put the working-level nuclear talks at risk,... Pyeongyang warned that it will decide what to do based on what the U.S. does.
Since then, the North has done nothing to indicate that it will engage in the working-level talks with Washington it promised.
And at the same time, the two sides will miss another opportunity for their top diplomats to talk... with diplomatic sources saying North Korea recently notified Thailand that its Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho won't be attending the ASEAN Regional Forum next week.
Pundits say Pyeongyang doesn't mean to completely kill the momentum for dialogue.
Firing the short-range missiles, rather, was a strategic choice.
In May when the North fired short-range missiles,... Trump called them (quote)"very standard stuff."
But experts point out that the North has been steadily unveiling new weapons,... aiming to gain an upper hand in its negotiations with the U.S.
"Firing short-range missiles means that the North can shoot ICBMs at the end of the year, and revealing a new submarine means it can fire SLBMs. If the North were to fire these, that would nullify Trump's achievements in North Korea policy."
Another expert points out the security guarantee the North wants.
"Unveiling these weapons would give the North more leverage in its nuclear negotiations with the U.S. and at the same time strongly press the U.S. that it needs to do something to guarantee the North Korean regime's security."
The North's firing of short-range missiles would not hurt the relationship between Kim and Trump, analysts say.
But with the soonest chances for dialogue now gone, the missile launch would indeed delay any talks even further.
Oh Jung-hee, Arirang News.

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