The Presidential National Security Office's first deputy chief Kim Tae-hyo said Thursday North Korea might launch another intercontinental ballistic missile before the end of the year, as he arrived in Washington to attend a nuclear consultative group meeting Friday.
"I think there is a possibility that North Korea would launch an ICBM in December," he told reporters at Dulles International Airport near Washington.
"I can't tell you further about this," he added when asked where the information came from.
The most recent ICBM launch by North Korea was a test of the Hwasong-18 missile in July. Unlike its predecessors, Hwasong-18 is powered by a solid fuel engine, which South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff noted in November is harder to detect before launch, as the preparation time is shorter.
Experts have noted that an ICBM would be capable of directly targeting the US mainland. North Korea's launch of a spy satellite in November also raised speculation that the success could help North Korea's nuclear warhead delivery capabilities.
When asked about the comment by Kurt Campbell, nominee for deputy secretary of state of the US, that North Korea is "no longer interested in diplomacy with the United States," during a Senate confirmation hearing last week earlier in December, Kim sided with Campbell, saying deterrence is South Korea's main focus in its approach to North Korea, which "unilaterally refuses diplomacy."
Kim also said that the missile warning data sharing system between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo is "on the verge of completion before the end of 2023," but the system is not the subject of the upcoming bilateral talk, he added.
Friday's nuclear consultative meeting would be the last to be held by national security representatives including Kim, as the presidents and defense ministries of the two countries will take charge beginning the next one.
The meeting, announced Tuesday by the presidential office, would be the second after the first one in Seoul in July, in the wake of the Washington Declaration signed in April.
