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Kim expresses ‘great satisfaction’ over weapons tests

People watch a TV news program reporting about North Korea’s firing projectiles with a file image at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Aug. 16, 2019. South Korea’s military said Friday North Korea fired more projectiles into the sea to extend a recent streak of weapons tests believed to be aimed at pressuring Washington and Seoul over slow nuclear diplomacy. The letters read on the top “North Korea, fired two unidentified projectiles.” (Lee Jin-man / Associated Press)
By Kim Tong-Hyung Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea on Saturday said leader Kim Jong Un supervised another test-firing of an unspecified new weapon that extended a streak of weapons demonstrations seen as an attempt to pressure Washington and Seoul over slow nuclear negotiations and their joint military exercises.

Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency on Saturday said Kim following Friday’s launches expressed “great satisfaction” over his military’s “mysterious and amazing success rates” in recent testing activity and vowed to build up “invincible military capabilities no one dare provoke.” The report did not mention any specific comment on the United States or South Korea.

Friday’s launches were North Korea’s sixth round of tests since late July that revealed developments of a new rocket artillery system and two separate short-range mobile ballistic missile systems that experts say would expand the North’s ability to strike targets throughout South Korea, including U.S. bases there.

KCNA did not describe what Friday’s weapons were or how they performed, but it said that the tests were successful and strengthened the military’s confidence in the reliability of the system.

South Korea’s military says two projectiles launched from the North’s eastern coast flew about 143 miles before landing in waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the U.S. and South Korean militaries were analyzing the launches but didn’t immediately say whether the weapons were ballistic missiles or rocket artillery.

Experts say President Donald Trump’s repeated downplaying of the North’s launches allowed the country more room to intensify its testing activity and advance its short-range weaponry while it seeks to build leverage ahead of nuclear negotiations with Washington, which could resume after the end of ongoing allied military drills later this month.

North Korea has also ignored South Korean calls for dialogue recently and is seen as trying to force Seoul to make stronger efforts to coax major concessions from Washington on its behalf.

South Korea’s military alerted reporters to the launches hours after an unidentified North Korean government spokesman used unusually blunt language to criticize South Korean President Moon Jae-in for continuing to hold military exercises with the U.S. and over his rosy comments on inter-Korean diplomacy, and said Pyongyang has no current plans to talk with Seoul.