North Korea's Kim Jong-un calls for 'offensive measures' ahead of nuclear talks deadline
Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, has called for “positive and offensive measures” to ensure national security ahead of his year-end deadline for the resumption of nuclear talks with the US, raising the prospects of a much-anticipated major weapons test.
His announcement, at a meeting of top party officials on Sunday, and reported by state newswire, KCNA, on Monday, coincided with a warning from the US that it is prepared to take action if North Korea delivers on its threat of a so-called “Christmas gift”, including a potential long-range missile test-fire.
"If Kim Jong-un takes that approach, we'll be extraordinarily disappointed and we'll express that disappointment," Robert O'Brien, the national security advisor, said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday when asked whether the US would respond to a North Korean provocation.
Mr O'Brien said that the White House was monitoring the situation, but did not provide specifics on Washington’s approach, saying only that the US has "a lot of tools in our toolkit".
Under a self-imposed moratorium, North Korea has not tested a long-range missile or nuclear warheads since 2017.
The US and its regional Asian allies have been on nervous standby for an escalation in tensions on the Korean peninsula since Pyongyang warned of a “gift” in mid-December due to Kim’s growing frustrations that Washington has not responded to his demands to soften its approach to nuclear talks.
The North Korean leader has made clear he expects concessions, including the lifting of sanctions, by the end of December, to kickstart stalled negotiations on his nuclear and weapons programmes.
North Korea has urged Washington to offer a new approach to resume negotiations, warning that it may take an unspecified "new path" if the US fails to meet its expectations.
Kim’s decision to convene a meeting of top party officials to pore over important matters including foreign affairs, armaments and the defence industry, has increased expectations of a major policy announcement.
The meeting - the largest of the party’s central command since 2013, with some 300 attendees - is still underway.
North Korea experts fear that the diplomatic détente, which began in 2018 with unprecedented summits between Kim and both Donald Trump, the US president, and Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s leader, may come to a crashing halt in 2020 because of this year’s failure to reach a breakthrough.
During Sunday's meeting session, Kim stressed the need to take "positive and offensive measures for fully ensuring the sovereignty and security of the country," KCNA said, without elaborating.
Mr Kim discussed state management and economic issues, including measures to improve agriculture, science, education, public health and the environment, it said, as the country's economy has been hit by international sanctions over its weapons programmes.
He "presented the tasks for urgently correcting the grave situation of the major industrial sectors of the national economy," KCNA said.
With North Korea’s relations with the US in a downward spiral, United Nations Security Council members are due to meet informally on Monday for a second round of talks on a Russian and Chinese proposal to lift a raft of sanctions against Pyongyang.
Russia and China proposed a draft UN Security Council resolution earlier this month that would lift sanctions imposed in 2016 and 2017 on industries that earned North Korea hundreds of millions of dollars.
One Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters, accused Russia and China of coordinating with North Korea on the draft resolution, including letting Pyongyang make its own additions to the text, before they engaged with the 15-member Security Council.
“China and Russia are pushing a sanctions-gutting resolution knowing full well from the beginning that they do not have the votes for the resolution to pass,” said the council diplomat.
