New North Korean Military Exercises Mark One Year Since Collapsed Summit with U.S.

North Korean state media outlet KCNA has reported on new exercises held by the country’s ground forces, which were intended “to judge the mobility and the fire power and strike ability” of Korean People's Army units. The exercises reportedly concluded with the leadership expressing “great satisfaction,” with media stressing that personnel involved were “trained under the simulated conditions of actual battles.” North Korea's ground forces have received a range of new weapons systems in recent years, from Bulsae-3 anti tank missiles based on the Russian Kornet design to new Pokpung Ho tanks and rocket artillery systems - with the domestic defence sector compensating a loss of access to foreign arms due to an UN arms embargo. New exercises mark one year since the failure of the Hanoi summit between North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump, the second meeting of the two leaders, which ended in failure. 

At Hanoi the Korean side had proposed a partial lifting of Western drafted economic sanctions at the United Nations, in return for partial access to its nuclear facilities, while the U.S. had reportedly at the last minute altered its terms - demanding the East Asian country’s full disarmament, the transfer of all Korean nuclear weapons to the United States and the declaration of all Korean chemical and biological weapons stockpiles. This would be a precondition for a lifting of sanctions, although Western sanctions have long predated the Korean nuclear program and are expected to remain in some form even if North Korea does fully denuclearise. North Korea has not tested strategic nuclear weapons or delivery vehicles for them since November 2017, with the possible partial exception of a submarine launched missile test in early October 2019. Further tests are expected later in the year should the U.S. not offer at least some form of concessions on the economic front.