North Korea carries out 'crucial test' at long-range missile site, state media reports

North Korea has performed another “crucial test” at its long-range missile launch site, state media has reported.

The Academy of Defence Science did not specify what was tested on Friday at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground.

Just days earlier, the North said it conducted a "very important test" at the site on the country's northwestern coast, prompting speculation that it involved a new engine for either an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) or a space launch vehicle.

The announcement comes as leader Kim Jon-un continues to pressure the US for new concessions by the end of the year in a bid to salvage stalled nuclear negotiations.

Pyongyang has said it will adopt a "new way" if President Donald Trump does not comply with their requests - saying the US can expect an ominous "Christmas gift" if it does not comply.

An unnamed spokesman for the academy said the successful outcome of the latest test, in addition to the one on December 7, "will be applied to further bolster up the reliable strategic nuclear deterrent of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.”

Kim Dong-yub, a former South Korean military officer and currently an analyst from Seoul's Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said the North mentioning its nuclear deterrent makes it clear it tested a new engine for an ICBM, not a satellite-launch vehicle.

Mr Kim said it was notable that North Korea announced the specific length of the test, which he said possibly signals a larger liquid-fuel ICBM engine.

During a provocative run of weapons tests in 2017, Kim Jong Un conducted three flight tests of ICBMs that demonstrated potential range to reach deep into the US mainland.

The tests raised tensions and triggered verbal warfare with President Trump as the leaders exchanged crude insults and threats of nuclear annihilation.

Relations between Mr Kim and Mr Trump became warmer in 2018 after their first summit in June in Singapore, where they issued a vague statement on a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, without describing when or how it would occur.

But negotiations faltered after the United States rejected North Korean demands for broad sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of the North's nuclear capabilities at Mr Kim's second summit with Mr Trump in Vietnam in February.

The pair met for a third time in June at the border between North and South Korea and agreed to resume talks. But an October working-level meeting in Sweden broke down over what the North Koreans described as the Americans' "old stance and attitude."

Read more

North Korea carries out 'very important test' at rocket launch site