N Korea blames US for stalled nuclear dialogue

Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim, a Korean Canadian pastor who has been detained in North Korea after his last visit to Pyongyang on January 31, was reported to have admitted to allegations of attempts to overthrow the North Korean government at a press conference held in Pyongyang, according to a North Korean state news agency.

When asked Tuesday about a possible test, North Korea United Nations Ambassador Jang Illinois Han told reporters that he could not rule out the possibility.

In an exchange on Twitter, Alejandro Cao – the Spanish-born Special Delegate of North Korea’s Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries – criticised evangelical Christians who he said “take advantage of drug addicts and homeless people and force them to become evangelists in exchange for a plate of soup”.

Analysis of the satellite pictures shows that construction that began in spring 2015 at the Sohae launch centre has been completed, the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said on Wednesday.

Leader of the North Korea Kim Jong-Un claimed that he is getting ready to war with the USA and “puppet South Korean regime”.

In a rare news conference in Beijing, Ji said the North’s nuclear capability was “not a plaything to be put on the negotiating table, as it is the essential means to protect sovereignty and vital rights from the US nuclear threat and hostile policy”.

But the report, which relied on commercial satellite images, cautioned there is no evidence preparations are underway for a long-rang missile launch.

United Nations resolutions bar Pyongyang from any ballistic missile activity, and previous test launches have led to sanctions against the reclusive state.

There has been growing pressure for the global community to try a new approach with North Korea, which has pushed ahead with its nuclear and missile programmes despite multi-layered UN sanctions and diplomatic isolation.

In a statement provided by his church on Thursday, Lim’s family said it had no comments regarding the charges and allegations made against Lim “except that the humanitarian aid projects that Mr. Lim has both initiated and supported in the DPRK have been for the betterment of the people”.

“We have the power to cope with any kinds of war methods of the US imperialists and have the strong power to restrain the provocative nuclear war acts of the US”, he said. “As a nuclear state, we have our own interests in a nuclear program”, Ji said.

In late 2012, the North successfully launched the Unha-3, a three-stage rocket with an estimated range of more than 10,000 kilometers.

In the wake of North Korea’s February 2013 nuclear test, the relationship between Pyongyang and Beijing appeared to have reached a new nadir.