North Korea’s ‘unprecedented’ missile launch rate to renew military standoff
by Joel Gehrke, Foreign Affairs Reporter | | June 08, 2022 07:00 AM
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's regime has made “preparations for a nuclear test,” according to a senior State Department official, that could inaugurate a renewed phase of saber rattling rendered more dangerous by the regime’s upgrades to its nuclear arsenal.
“We know that the North Koreans have done preparations for a nuclear test,” the State Department's special envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, told reporters Tuesday. “We will be obviously vigilant, and we will be in close touch with our allies and partners to be able to respond very quickly, very swiftly should the North Koreans proceed with the nuclear test."
That test would put a nuclear exclamation point on an “unprecedented” flurry of ballistic missile launches by the rogue regime. North Korea launched eight short-range ballistic missiles Sunday, pushing its total number of launches this year to an annual record high in an apparent effort to demonstrate the modernization of its tactical nuclear weapon delivery systems in advance of a test.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/north-koreas-unprecedented-missile-launch-rate-to-renew-military-standoff
