NKorea tests new high-thrust engine

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un announced the ground test of a “high-thrust engine” to be used in a rocket, the country’s state-run media said Saturday.

He said the engine will help North Korea achieve world-class satellite launch capability, it added.

The six-party talks launched in 2003 aimed to end North Korea’s nuclear program via negotiations involving the United States, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and North Korea.

Interpol has put out “red notices” for four North Koreans wanted in connection with last month’s assassination of the half-brother of North Korea’s leader in the Kuala Lumpur area, Malaysia’s police chief said Thursday.

“Today’s historical launch has announced the birth to the wholly independent rocket industry, which has now changed to the development and creative industry”, KCNA said.

North Korea has conducted five suspected nuclear tests in the past, including two tests a year ago.

U.S. president Donald Trump’s new right hand man Rex Tillerson met with his Chinese counterpart on Saturday. However, the regime has reportedly refused to scale down its missiles tests.

“There is a possibility that the North will provoke other countries by firing off an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) or launch a satellite soon”, the scholar said.

A short time later, before Tillerson was set to leave for Beijing, President Trump tweeted: “North Korea is behaving very badly”.

En route to Beijing, Tillerson visited USA allies Japan and South Korea where he declared Washington would drop the “failed” approach of patient diplomacy with Pyongyang, warning that American military action against the North was “on the table”.

China was the last stop on his three-country tour that also took him to South Korea and Japan.

Kim was on hand for another rocket engine test in September a year ago after the reclusive country conducted its fifth nuclear test earlier in the month.

“I’m confident that as long as we can do this the relationship can surely move in the right direction”, Xi said.

Tillerson has emphasized the need for a new approach to deal with the growing North Korean nuclear threat, and he stressed that the United States is willing to consider “all options” to rein in North Korea’s aggressive military policies.