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Sung Kim, the US special envoy to North Korea, arrives at Incheon International Airport on June 5 after a trip to South Korea to discuss responses to the North. (Yonhap News)

US Special Representative to North Korea Sung Kim said that the North could test a nuclear weapon at “any time” and warned that the US’ response would be “swift and forceful.” Kim added that North Korea’s security concerns could be resolved through diplomacy and once again asked the North to take part in dialogue without any preconditions.

“They have obviously done the preparations in Punggye-ri [village], and I understand they could test any time,” Kim said during a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday (US time).

But the nuclear envoy said he couldn’t pinpoint a date and expressed his hope that Pyongyang will “refrain from a nuclear test.”

Kim said the US has “seen a marked increase in the scope and scale of their ballistic missile tests, brazenly [. . .] flouting the international rules-based order.”

“North Korea has now launched 31 ballistic missiles in 2022, the most ballistic missiles it has ever launched in a single year,” the envoy said.

Echoing the words of US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, Kim said that the US “will be swift and forceful in our response” if North Korea carries out a seventh nuclear test and promised to make a “clear response that a nuclear test is unacceptable to us and to the international community.”

Sherman, who is currently visiting South Korea, had earlier warned of a “swift and forceful response.”

“To demonstrate our sincerity, senior US officials, including our president and the secretary of state, have repeatedly and publicly affirmed that we seek diplomacy with the DPRK [North Korea] without preconditions,” Kim said, adding that Pyongyang hasn’t responded.

“We have also reached out to pass this message through private channels as well. This includes high-level personal messages from senior US officials to senior DPRK officials. Over the past year, we have sent such messages in multiple ways – through third parties, directly, in writing,” he said.

Most recently, Kim said, the US expressed its willingness to provide assistance in connection with the COVID-19 outbreak in North Korea. “However, to date, the DPRK has not responded and continues to show no indication it is interested in engaging [with us],” he said.

“Even so, we continue to reach out to the DPRK and are committed to pursuing a diplomatic approach,” Kim said. “We’ve made clear to them [. . .] that we are willing to address issues of concern to them.”

As for whether the Biden administration is willing to go beyond what the Trump administration offered in its negotiations with North Korea, Kim said, “We’re willing to take a more comprehensive, more flexible, and more openminded approach to diplomacy if and when the DPRK shows interest in finding a diplomatic path forward.”

Responding to another reporter, Kim said “there is no end date” for giving up on diplomacy and trying a different approach. “We will continue to remain committed to pursuing, via the diplomatic path, [. . .] the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and to address issues of concern to both sides,” he said.

But Kim also emphasized that the US means to pressure North Korea through sanctions. While the US remains “committed to diplomacy,” it continues to take protective measures such as “maintaining strong deterrent capability, together with the Republic of Korea and Japan” and making “sure that countries are actually enforcing UN Security Council resolution sanctions in place.”

According to Kim, Russia and China’s veto of a resolution at the UN Security Council could encourage North Korea “to take further provocative actions and further violations of Security Council resolutions.”

But Kim also said, “We continue to believe that China has an important role to play and that they continue to share our ultimate objective of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

By Lee Bon-young, Washington correspondent

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