North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has overseen the testing of a “newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon”, Pyongyang’s state media reported Friday, in a move that will raise the temperature over denuclearisation talks.
It marked the first official report of a weapons test by North Korea in nearly a year since it launched a delicate diplomacy with Washington over its nuclear and missile programme.
“Kim Jong Un…visited the test ground of the Academy of Defence Science and supervised a newly developed ultramodern tactical weapon test,” said the official Korean Central News Agency.
It said the test was successful but did not specify the type of device involved.
Pyongyang’s suspension of testing for nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles has been key to this year’s rapid diplomatic developments and North Korean-US negotiations, and has been repeatedly praised by President Donald Trump.
Trump and Kim met in a historic summit in Singapore in June, where they signed a vaguely worded document on denuclearisation of the peninsula.
Progress has since stalled as Washington and Pyongyang spar over the meaning of the document, and a return to testing would cast grave doubts over the future of the process.
The use of the word “tactical” in the KCNA report suggests that no long-range ballistic rocket or nuclear device was involved, and there were no immediate indications any such test had been detected by the South.
