The Slatest

North Korea Carries Out Another Missile Test

This undated picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 14, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un at an undisclosed location in North Korea.  

STR/AFP/Getty Images

North Korea has fired what looks like yet another ballistic missile in what would be the latest example of the totalitarian nation defying international critics by continuing with its weapons program. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the projectile that was launched from Kusong, which is northwest of the capital, appeared to be a ballistic missile. U.S. officials confirmed the launch but said they were still analyzing the data to figure out what kind of projectile it was and whether the launch was successful.

This launch, which came days after South Koreans went to the polls to elect a new president, is the latest in a string of tests. North Korea has carried out four unsuccessful ballistic missile tests over the past two months.

Despite increasing tensions between Pyongyang and Washington, a senior North Korean diplomat said the country would be willing to holds with the United States. “We’ll have dialogue if the conditions are there,” Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s foreign ministry director general for US affairs, told reporters in Beijing. But don’t hold your breath. “To say ‘under right conditions’ basically means they won’t talk now,” said Shin Beomchul, a professor at Korea National Diplomatic Academy. “The remark is definitely a bit softer in tone compared to the past when the North would’ve said no to talks unless the U.S. acknowledges them as a nuclear power.” President Donald Trump shocked many diplomats when he said he would be “honored” to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him [Kim], I would, absolutely. I would be honored to do it,” Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg earlier this month.