North Korea warns of reconsidering moratorium on weapons tests due to US — report

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea would bolster its defenses against the United States and consider "restarting all temporally-suspended activities," state media KCNA reported Thursday, an apparent reference to a self-imposed moratorium on testing its nuclear bombs and long-range missiles.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened a meeting of the powerful politburo of the ruling Workers' Party to "discuss and decide immediate work and important policy issues," including countermeasures over US hostile policy."

The hostile policy and military threat by the United States have reached a danger line that can not be overlooked any more despite our sincere efforts for maintaining the general tide for relaxation of tension," the official KCNA news agency said.

The politburo ordered reconsidering "trust-building measures that we took on our own initiative on a preferential ground" and "promptly examining the issue of restarting all temporally-suspended activities," it said.

The report came days after North Korea conducted its fourth missile test in 2022, following two launches of "hypersonic missiles" capable of high speed and maneuvering after lift-off, and another one involving a railway-borne missile system.

North Korea has not tested its longest-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) or nuclear weapons since 2017, as a flurry of diplomacy with Washington unfolded from 2018.

But it began testing a range of new SRBM designs after denuclearization talks stalled and slipped back into a standoff following a failed summit in 2019.  -- Reuters