STOCKHOLM, Oct 5, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – North Korean and US officials on
Saturday were set to resume nuclear talks in Stockholm after months of
deadlock and Pyongyang’s defiant test of a sea-launched ballistic missile
this week. North Korea’s Kim Myong Gil and Stephen Biegun, the special envoy
of US President Donald Trump, are part of the teams at an island off
Stockholm.
The first cars with tinted windows started arriving just after 9:00 am
(0700 GMT).
North Korea frequently couples diplomatic overtures with military moves as
a way of maintaining pressure on negotiating partners, analysts say, and many
believe this weapons system gives it added leverage.
Pyongyang tested what it called a “super-large” rocket on Wednesday just
hours after it said it was willing to resume working-level talks with
Washington.
Similar-level talks on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament were held in
Stockholm in March 2018 and then in January this year.
Kim Myong Gil said he was “optimistic” about the talks, speaking in
Beijing on his way to the Swedish capital.
Washington has been eagerly awaiting a resumption of the dialogue, which
has virtually stalled after a Hanoi meeting in late February between Trump
and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea claimed to have entered a new phase in its defence capability
with Wednesday’s test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile — the most
provocative since Pyongyang began a dialogue with Washington in 2018.
The Pentagon said Thursday the missile seems to have been launched from a
“sea-based platform” and not a submarine.
Trump has said he sees no problem with a string of short-range rocket
tests conducted previously by North Korea, while insisting his personal ties
with the North’s leader remain good.
– ‘Vertical mode’ –
Photos carried by Pyongyang’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed a
black and white missile emerging from the water and appearing to shoot into
the sky. The images also showed a small towing vessel next to the missile,
which analysts said indicates the test was conducted from a submersible barge
rather than an actual submarine, and that the system was in its early stages.
“The new-type ballistic missile was fired in vertical mode” in the waters
off Wonsan Bay, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, identifying
the weapon as a Pukguksong-3 and saying it “ushered in a new phase in
containing the outside forces’ threat.”
The United Nations Security Council meanwhile is expected to hold closed-
door talks early next week on the latest test, diplomats said.
The talks were requested by Britain, France and Germany, as the European
powers push for the world body to keep up pressure on Pyongyang which is
under heavy US and UN sanctions over its weapons program.
North Korea is banned from ballistic missile launches by Security Council
resolutions.