SABER RATTLING

North Korea Carries Out ‘Very Important Test’ at Satellite Launching Site

North Korea’s state news agency gave few details about the secret launch except to say that the results would be used to “upgrade the country's strategic status.”

North Korea’s state news agency KCNA says it has carried out a “very important test” at a once-dismantled satellite-launching site as talks formally broke down with U.S. negotiators. Though it is unclear whether the test involved a satellite launcher or an intercontinental ballistic missile, the news agency said the results would be used to “upgrade the country's strategic status.” North Korea had set an end of the year deadline for the Trump administration to come up with a new denuclearization deal that would involve sanctions relief. “We do not need to have lengthy talks with the U.S. now, and denuclearization is already gone out of the negotiating table,” Kim Song, the North Korean envoy to the U.N. said in a statement Saturday. President Trump told reporters a few hours later that he still hoped a deal would be reached.