US must hold Kim to account

Donald Trump says he believes Kim Jong-un is “a man of his word” but there was little sign of that in the North Korean despot’s seven-hour, year-end address to his Workers’ Party. His announcement that Pyongyang is ending its moratoriums on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests flew in the face of the agreement on denuclearisation the two men reached at their Singapore summit in 2018. As Mr Trump said, “denuclearisation” was “the No 1 sentence” in the agreement. After Singapore, he tweeted: “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.” He expected denuclearisation to begin as soon as Kim arrived back in Pyongyang.

At the Workers’ Party meeting, however, Kim capped a year of mounting bellicosity over what he termed “gangster-like” US sanctions. As well as announcing the end of the testing moratorium, he warned of imminent “shocking” action and an unspecified “new strategic weapon”.

Given the presidential election is in November and the fact the US President regards his breakthrough with North Korea as one of his signature foreign policy successes, the White House is deeply concerned.

Pyongyang last test-fired an ICBM capable of hitting the US in November 2017, prompting Mr Trump to warn North Korea’s actions would be “met with fire and fury like the world has never seen”. Kim apparently sees an opportunity to press his demands for sanctions relief, but it is imperative that Mr Trump not give in to North Korean bellicosity. In Singapore, he made it clear there could be no easing of sanctions or any other concessions without denuclearisation. Kim must be made to keep his word.