Analysts predict Kim Jong Un will reverse course after US fails to ease sanctions
Seoul — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for “offensive measures” to strengthen security ahead of a New Year speech that could flesh out the nuclear-armed nation’s threat to seek a “new way” forward after the expiration of its year-end deadline for US sanctions relief.
Nuclear talks between the North and the US have been largely stalled since the collapse of a February summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Hanoi. Earlier in December China and Russia — the North’s biggest economic partners — proposed loosening UN sanctions against Pyongyang, and analysts say Kim is likely to seek to exploit rivalries between Washington, Beijing and Moscow.
“It will focus on developing its military leverage and economic resistance to sanctions, while demanding unconditional peace and normalisation before there can be any talk on denuclearisation.” It is a key moment in the North Korean political calendar, reviewing the past and setting out goals for the future. It is printed in full in the Rodong Sinmun mouthpiece newspaper.
Lee told AFP North Korea is likely to resume testing longer-range missiles including ICBMs in 2020, and potentially even nuclear blasts, and could also carry out “military provocations against South Korea”.
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