Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has supervised the testing of a<\/b>
\nSeoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has supervised the testing of a \u201chigh-tech\u201d new weapon, Pyongyang\u2019s state media reported Friday, in a move that raises the temperature over denuclearisation talks.
\u201cKim Jong Un inspected the testing of a newly developed high-tech tactical weapon at the Academy of National Defence Science,\u201d said the official Korean Central News Agency.
It said the test was successful but did not specify the type of device involved.
Pyongyang\u2019s suspension of testing for nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles has been key to this year\u2019s 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 \u201ctactical\u201d 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.
But in response to the first reports, Adam Mount of the Federation of American Scientists tweeted: \u201cThat pit of dread you felt in your stomach when you read this is your reminder that the DPRK missile test pause is voluntary, partial, and can fail without notice if it isn\u2019t explicitly codified.\u201d
DPRK is the abbreviation for the country\u2019s official name.
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Kim expressed \u201cgreat satisfaction\u201d and said the test marks \u201ca groundbreaking turning point in strengthening the fighting power of our military\u201d, KCNA said.
The \u201chigh-tech tactical weapon\u201d had been developed over a long period and \u201cbuilds impregnable defences of our country and strengthens the fighting power of our people\u2019s army\u201d, it added.
The news came almost a year after Pyongyang\u2019s last test of an intercontinental ballistic missile and recalled the repeated announcements of 2017, which included by far its most powerful nuclear blast to date and rockets that brought the whole of the US mainland into range.
Soon afterwards Kim declared the development of his nuclear arsenal \u2014 which Pyongyang has long said it needs to defend itself against a possible invasion by the US \u2014 complete.
The Winter Olympics in the South then triggered a rapid diplomatic rapprochement on the peninsula that as well as the Singapore meeting has seen three summits between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
A second encounter between Kim and Trump is expected in the new year.
But Pyongyang is demanding sanctions imposed against it over its weapons programmes are eased and has condemned US demands for what it calls its \u201cunilateral\u201d disarmament as \u201cgangster-like\u201d.
Washington insists the measures should stay in place until the North\u2019s \u201cfinal, fully verified\u201d denuclearisation.
Prof Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korea Studies in Seoul told AFP the test was \u201ca signal to the US sent ahead of the high level talks that its own patience is also thinning out\u201d.
After the Singapore summit, Trump announced the suspension of joint military exercises with the South, the United States\u2019 treaty ally, calling them \u201cprovocative\u201d in an echo of the North\u2019s condemnations.
Earlier this month the allies resumed a small-scale amphibious drill, the Korea Marine Exercise Program, prompting criticism by the North\u2019s media.<\/p>\n

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