North Korea conducts another test at long-range rocket site

rth Korea said Saturday that it successfully performed ar “crucial test” at its long-range rocket launch site that will furr strengn its nuclear deterrent.

test possibly involved techlogies to improve intercontinental ballistic missiles that could potentially reach continental United States.

anuncement comes as rth Korea continues to pressure Trump ministration for major concessions as it approaches an end-of-year deline set by leer Kim Jong Un to salv faltering nuclear negotiations.

rth Korea’s Acemy of Defense Science did t specify what was tested on Friday. Just days earlier, rth said it conducted a “very important test” at site on country’s rthwestern coast, prompting speculation that it involved a new engine for eir an ICBM or a launch vehicle.

anuncement suggests that country is preparing to do something to provoke United States if Washington doesn’t back down and make concessions to ease sanctions and pressure on Pyongyang in delocked nuclear negotiations.

An unnamed spokesman for acemy said scientists received warm congratulations from members from ruling Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee who attended test that was conducted from 10:41 to 10:48 p.m. Friday at Sohae Satellite Launching Ground, where rth has conducted satellite launches and liquid-fuel missile engine tests in recent years.

spokesman said successful outcome of latest test, in dition to one on Dec. 7, “will be applied to furr bolster up reliable strategic nuclear deterrent of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” referring to rth Korea’s formal name.

Kim Dong-yub, a former South Korean military officer and currently an analyst from Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said rth mentioning its nuclear deterrent makes it clear it tested a new engine for an ICBM, t a satellite-launch vehicle. Kim said it was table that rth Korea anunced specific length of test, which he said possibly signals a larger liquid-fuel ICBM engine.

rth Korea’s current ICBMs, including Hwasong-15, are built with first sts that are powered by a pair of engines that experts say are modeled after Russian designs. When rth first tested engine in 2016, it said test lasted for 200 seconds and demonstrated a thrust of 80 tons-force.

During a provocative run of weapons tests in 2017, Kim Jong Un conducted three flight tests of ICBMs that demonstrated potential range to reach deep into U.S. mainland, raising tensions and triggering verbal warfare with President Donald Trump as y exchanged crude insults and threats of nuclear annihilation. Experts say that rth still needs to improve missiles, such as ensuring that ir warhes survive harsh conditions of atmospheric reentry, for m to be considered a viable threat.

Relations between Kim and Trump became cozier in 2018 after Kim initiated diplomacy that led to ir first summit in June that year in Singapore, where y issued a vague statement on a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, without describing when or how it would occur.

But negotiations faltered after United States rejected rth Korean demands for bro sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of rth’s nuclear capabilities at Kim’s second summit with Trump in Vietnam in February.

Trump and Kim met for a third time in June at border between rth and South Korea and agreed to resume talks. But an October working-level meeting in Sweden broke down over what rth Koreans described as Americans’ “old stance and attitude.”

Kim, who unilaterally suspended nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests last year during talks with Washington and Seoul, has said rth Korea could seek a “new path” if United States persists with sanctions and pressure against rth.

rth Korea has also conducted 13 rounds of ballistic missile and rocket artillery tests since May, and has hinted at lifting its moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests if Trump ministration fails to make substantial concessions before new year.

Some experts doubt that Kim would revive tensions of 2017 by restarting nuclear and ICBM tests, which would cross a metaphorical “red line” and risk shattering his hard-won diplomacy with Washington. y say Kim is likely to pressure Trump with military activities that pose less of a direct threat to U.S. and by bolstering a united front with Beijing and Moscow. Both are rth’s allies and have called for U.N. Security Council to consider easing sanctions on Pyongyang to help nuclear negotiations move forward.

Saturday’s news of test came after U.S. Ambassor Kelly Craft criticized rth’s ballistic testing activity during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday, saying that tests were “deeply counterproductive” and risk closing door on prospects for negotiating peace.

She also cited rth Korean hints of “a resumption of serious provocations,” which she said would mean y could launch vehicles using long-range ballistic missile techlogy or test ICBMs, “which are designed to attack continental United States with nuclear weapons.”

While Craft said that Trump ministration is “prepared to be flexible” and take concrete, parallel steps toward an agreement on resuming talks, rth Korea described her comments as a “hostile provocation” and warned that Washington may have squandered its chance at salvaging fragile nuclear diplomacy.