North Korea is testing new weapons systems — such as missiles and air-defence systems — at twice the pace seen during Donald Trump’s first presidential term, Bloomberg reports.
As of Sunday, the number of launches this year had exceeded 20.
This is the second-highest level of intensity after 2022, when North Korea rolled out a large-scale series of tests as it began supplying weapons for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
According to the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the number of launches since the start of Trump’s second term has already more than doubled the 17 launches recorded at the same stage of his first term.
As Trump prepares for a trip to Asia, North Korea has carried out four weapons tests in the past two weeks alone.
“This underscores how much higher the ‘bar’ has become for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in terms of possible concessions in any talks with the US — especially after the Republican Party suffered serious setbacks in last week’s midterm elections,” the outlet notes.
Kim Jong Un Now Has Far More Money for Weapons
Adam Farrar, a former director at the US National Security Council who oversaw Korea policy under both the Trump and Biden administrations, said Kim now has far greater capacity to fund weapons programmes.
“Missile tests are expensive, and Kim now has significantly more resources to finance them, including proceeds from supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine and from cryptocurrency theft. As a result, systems have emerged that could be far more difficult for regional air and missile defence capabilities to neutralise,” Farrar said.
Read alsoFT: Europe Concerned About Deepening South Korea–Russia Co-operation
Bloomberg adds that compared with 2017, when Trump threatened to rain “fire and fury” on Kim, the North Korean leader’s arsenal has expanded and become far more diverse. North Korea claims it now includes warheads with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, drones, and a hypersonic weapons system.
The drive to modernise the country’s conventional arsenal points to Pyongyang moving away from Kim Jong Un’s previous strategy, which focused entirely on strategic weapons designed to pose a threat to the US mainland.
- On the eve of the midterm elections, Trump initially suggested the possibility of renewed US contacts with North Korea, but in October he changed his rhetoric, lowering expectations for engagement. Trump said he was “not sure anyone is even asking for a meeting”.
- For now, there is little to suggest that Kim is ready to meet Trump again any time soon. However, Trump may try to use his broad foreign-policy powers — especially now that Democrats have taken control of Congress and are expected to oppose him at home.