North Korea is likely to continue carrying out tests given its recent combative rhetoric, following last week's "crucial test" of a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th December, 2019) North Korea is likely to continue carrying out tests given its recent combative rhetoric, following last week's "crucial test" of a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said.
"It is a concern, their rhetoric. We have seen talk of tests. I think that they will be likely," Esper told reporters on Monday aboard a US military aircraft returning from a visit to Europe.
Esper added that there was a US team "on the peninsula" that has reached out and is asking to meet with the North Korean side. He went on to cite his experience in the region, saying that discussions about political solutions were needed.
"I've been watching the Korean Peninsula for maybe a quarter of a century now, so I'm familiar with their tactics ... we need to get serious and sit down and have discussions about a political agreement that denuclearizes the peninsula. That's the best way forward and arguably the only way forward," Esper said, as quoted in a transcript published by the Department of Defense.
Last week, the North Korean academy of National Defense Science announced that it had conducted a missile test at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground after conducting one at the same location on December 7.
The resumed tests threaten to undermine US President Donald Trump's diplomatic drive to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
Since 2018, the United States and North Korea held two summits and agreed to normalize relations and for Pyongyang to pursue a policy of denuclearization.
Negotiations have come to a halt with Washington demanding more decisive steps from Pyongyang. North Korea has blamed the United States for not properly reciprocating its previous goodwill gestures.
