President Donald Trump warned North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un he could “void” their “special relationship” after reports came through that communist North Korea had successfully conducted an “important” test at a missile site.

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On Saturday, the Korean Central News Agency reported that a “very important test took place at the Sohae Satellite launching Ground” that day.

The agency further said the test was of “great significance,” and will “change the strategic position of North Korea in the near future.”

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A satellite image obtained by CNN Thursday indicated North Korea may be preparing to resume testing engines used to power satellite launchers and intercontinental ballistic missiles at Sohae, according to experts who analyzed the photo.

It showed new activity at the site. There was a presence of a large shipping container at the facility’s engine test stand, according to Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute, which works in partnership with the imaging company.

Bruce Klingner of the Heritage Foundation, noted that the Trump administration has not taken a tough approach with Pyongyang. The U.S. has declined to apply sanctions against either North Korea or countries like China that trade with it.

The White House has made repeated concessions to Kim, canceling and postponing the
Pentagon’s joint military exercises with South Korea, most recently in November, after North Korea
had objected. Those steps have not yielded progress, Klingner and others said.
Last week, a senior North Korean government official again described Trump as a “dotard”
after Trump revived the war of words with Kim by calling him “Rocket Man.”
“If any language and expressions stoking the atmosphere of confrontation are used once again on
purpose at a crucial moment as now, that must really be diagnosed as the relapse of the dotage of a
dotard,” Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s First Vice-Foreign Minister, was quoted as saying by the
country’s state news agency.

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Article by Rajeet Guha