North Korea says it has conducted a ‘significant’ test at a missile site
North Korean state media are reporting that a “very important test took place at the Sohae Satellite launching Ground” on Saturday.
According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the test produced a “successful result” and was of “great significance” and that it will “change the strategic position of North Korea in the near the future.”
It was not immediately clear what was tested.
Earlier this month, North Korea warned obliquely it would send the US a “Christmas gift,” but what that present contains will depend on the outcome of ongoing talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
In 2017, North Korea referred to its first test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) as a “gift” for the US on the Fourth of July holiday. That launch sparked what became a tense, months-long standoff between the two sides.
North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations said Saturday that denuclearization was off the table in negotiations with the US, which he claimed had been a “time-saving trick” to benefit a “domestic political agenda.”
“We do not need to have lengthy talks with the US now and the denuclearization is already gone out of the negotiation table,” Ambassador Kim Song said in a statement.
