Belligerent articles alleged “extremely provocative and dangerous” American military moves after the United States canceled a trip by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
WASHINGTON — North Korean state media criticized the United States over the weekend for “extremely provocative and dangerous military moves” in Pacific waters and warned that the diplomacy forged between the two countries’ leaders during their Singapore summit meeting in June could be in jeopardy.
The belligerent articles were the first official comments from North Korea since a frustrated President Trump announced on Friday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was canceling his most recent plan to travel to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
Mr. Trump’s announcement, made in a series of tweets, was the first acknowledgment by the American president that the diplomatic process with North Korea had stalled.
He said the United States had not been making “sufficient progress” on getting North Korea to halt or dismantle its nuclear weapons program, and blamed China for the slow progress. Some American officials and analysts in Beijing, however, have said China generally has adhered to an American-led economic sanctions plan against North Korea.
On Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency, the official state news agency of the government in Pyongyang, reported that American “special units” had flown 1,200 kilometers, or about 745 miles, to the Philippines over Pacific waters. It described the exercise as preparing for an “infiltration into Pyongyang,” which could be done with a “change of direction.”
The report also said the U. S. S. Michigan, a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, had transported units of Green Berets, Delta Force and other elite soldiers in late July or early August from Okinawa, Japan, to a naval base in South Korea.
The news agency cited South Korean radio as its source, not any independent evidence.
