U.N. Warns Defiant North Korea Still Building Nuclear and Ballistic Missile Capabilities

North Korea has maintained the development of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs in defiance of all promises to the contrary made to the United Nations, a report released Saturday reveals.

The Associated Press was able to obtain a report from U.N. experts on Saturday, that indicated the rogue state had engaged in a “marked acceleration” of their short and possibly medium-range ballistic missile testing in January 2022.

The report suggested the North Koreans have developed “a possible hypersonic guiding warhead and a manoeuvrable re-entry vehicle”, as well as the ability to incorporate “both ballistic and guidance technologies” with “both solid and liquid propellants”.

As a deterrent from further developing its missile programme, North Korea had sanctions imposed on it by the United Nations Security Council in 2006 following its testing of a nuclear device.

While sanctions have devastated North Korea’s economy with the country experiencing shortages of food and medical supplies, North Korea has however managed to evade some sanctions via both legal and illicit activities involving cryptocurrency, which allows it to finance its missile programme.

The Korean dictatorship also reportedly has access to black-market trading routes, which further allow it to evade international sanctions, rendering them obsolete as a deterrent.

Relations between North Korea and the West initially improved with former President Donald Trump’s historic visit to the rogue state in 2019 resulting in North Korea declaring that they now wished to “push forward productive dialogues for making a new breakthrough in the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula”.

Trump’s presidency also saw North Korea agree to a self-imposed moratorium on testing nuclear weapons in 2017. However, since Biden’s premiership, this has been under threat, with Pyongyang testing multiple ballistic missiles in January 2022.

Relations have soured between North Korea and the United States under Democrat President Joe Biden, who even before taking office said in October 2020: “This president [Trump] embraces all the thugs in the world. I mean, he’s best friends with the leader of North Korea, sending love letters”.

North Korea has not historically been fond of Biden, and in November 2019 North Korean state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) suggested Biden was a “rabid dog” that “must be beaten to death with a stick” after Biden criticised North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un.

President Biden has indicated he is reluctant to give North Korea “international recognition”, so has taken a different approach to Trump, despite South Korea’s leftist President Moon Jae-in urging Biden to continue Trump’s negotiations with the rogue state.

Biden’s different approach has resulted in North Korea refusing to meet with Biden’s representatives, and it was reported by Breitbart in March 2021 that North Korea has ignored all communication efforts from Biden’s team.

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart, Trump revealed that he believes Biden has left the U.S. in a “much weaker” position and nations like North Korea no longer “respect” the States.