Centrum Stosunków Międzynarodowych - 20 September 2016: North Korea’s growing capabilities; Pyongyang tests rocket engine

Late yesterday North Korea has tested its new rocket engine to launch satellites. It is believed that the technology was developed in cooperation with specialist from Iran. Kim Jong Un is once again staging a show of his power, which the world watches with great concern. Earlier this month North Korea conduced its fifth nuclear test, and over the course of the summer the country has been testing its ballistic capabilities on a scale much higher than ever before.

Experts from the 38 North Website and those from the American Non-proliferation Review, are sure that North Korea is presenting the world with serious developments that it was not suspected to posses, and which could be used in the near future. They pose direct threat not only to the region but also to the North American continent. Those novelties arise while the United States and China are preparing to increase their cooperation at the UN to address the lasts nuclear test, as well as when a new set of sanctions is being discussed between the US, South Korea and Japan. So far, however, further sanctions have not prevented Kim Jong Un from organising new military tests, rather they have further provoked him.