Kim shows off new ICBM built during talks with Trump

Bloomberg

Kim Jong-un rolled out a new ballistic missile designed to carry nuclear warheads to the US, in a massive military parade that appeared calibrated to show strength at home and abroad without provoking President Donald Trump.
The new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which weapons experts said appeared to be the largest road-mobile rocket of its type, provided the grand finale to an extended procession of goose-stepping troops and military hardware. Footage of the rare midnight parade to mark the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party was aired hours after the event, confirming weeks of speculation that Kim would use the show to send a campaign-season message to the US
“The new ICBM is almost certainly Kim Jong-un’s ‘new strategic weapon’ promised to the world back in December 2019,” said Ankit Panda, author of “Kim Jong-un and the Bomb: Survival and Deterrence in North Korea” and a Stanton senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “North Korea worked on this system while diplomacy with the United States was ongoing.”
The spectacular affair — complete with fighter jet fly-overs and fireworks — included both flourishes of authoritarian control and emotion from Kim, who wore a gray business suit and glasses as he read a written speech from a high balcony overlooking Kim Il Sung Square. Kim appeared to cry while expressing regret for the country’s struggles under sanctions and natural disasters.
In his remarks, Kim vowed only to unleash his arsenal if threatened. He avoided naming the US and signalled a willingness to resume exchanges with rival South Korea after the pandemic subsided.
“We will continue to strengthen our war deterrence capability, so as to deter all kinds of risky attempts and threats — including nuclear threats that are being constantly aggravated by hostile forces,” Kim said. “But if any forces try to use their military power against us, I will preemptively mobilise our most powerful offensive force and punish them.”
The US criticised North Korea soon after the release of the
parade footage. Washington said it was “disappointed” to see
Pyongyang continuing its weapons development, according to the South’s Yonhap news agency, citing an anonymous senior US official.
John Supple, a spokesperson for the US Department of Defense, said that Washington was analysing the event along with its Asian allies, the agency added.
Seoul held its emergency National Security Council meeting on Sunday to discuss the North’s military parade, according to South Korea’s presidential Blue House.
The event was the first time since Kim opened unprecedented talks with Trump in 2018 that he had paraded
new nuclear hardware through Pyongyang.
Kim has expressed increasing frustration with the US since Trump walked out of their second formal summit in February 2019 without a deal to reduce North Korea’s nuclear arsenal or relieve the sanctions squeezing the country’s economy.