Pompeo: "North Korea Has Not Conducted Missile Tests... Success in North Korea Policy"

No Significant Meaning Attributed to North Korea's ICBM Display in Military Parade
Seems to Avoid Admitting Failure of North Korea Policy Before Presidential Election

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] Mike Pompeo, U.S. Secretary of State, said on the 14th (local time) that "North Korea's missile test launches are important," adding, " I am confident that our diplomacy has been entirely successful."

Recently, North Korea unveiled a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at the 75th anniversary parade of the Workers' Party, placing more significance on the fact that no missile tests were conducted.

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

At a briefing that day, Pompeo responded to a question about "how threatening the new ICBM unveiled at the parade is, and whether the Trump administration's diplomacy toward North Korea still considers the threat reduced," saying, "We also saw the parade components."

He mentioned, "The most important thing to be sure that a missile program actually works when a country develops it is to test the missile," emphasizing "it is important to know that."

Pompeo stated, "Although North Korea has not achieved our ultimate goal, the agreements and understandings (between the North Korean and U.S. leaders in Singapore) have certainly led to a reduction in the risk to the United States."

This is interpreted as the Trump administration's stance of not making a big issue out of the fact that North Korea has not crossed the 'red line' set by the administration, which includes nuclear and ICBM test launches.

Earlier, President Trump also referred to North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un as "sharp" during a rally in Florida on the 12th, after North Korea's parade, but did not mention the parade at all. This is interpreted as a concern that criticizing North Korea's parade ahead of the presidential election could be seen as admitting failure in North Korea policy.

Pompeo even argued, "You should know that the Chinese Communist Party conducted more missile tests last year than any other country in the world, including North Korea."

However, experts have different views. Bruce Klingner, senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation, refuted Pompeo's claims point by point. He criticized, "U.S. diplomacy has neither succeeded nor reduced the threat." Klingner also emphasized, "Pompeo said North Korea did not conduct any missile tests last year, but in reality, they launched missiles 26 times, all of which violated UN resolutions."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.