Feb 10, 2022: The South Korean leader. President Moon Jae-In warned on Thursday that the peninsula could slip into a “state of crisis” again if Pyongyang threatens to resume testing long-range missiles.

Pyongyang conducted an unprecedented seven weapons tests in January, including its most powerful missile since 2017, when leader Kim Jong Un baited then-US president Donald Trump with a spate of provocative launches.

High-profile talks between Trump and Kim took place, but collapsed in 2019, and Pyongyang has doubled its military development, warning last month that it would test self-propelled missiles on long-range missiles and nuclear weapons.

President Moon Jae-in said in a letter to world’s top agencies that any move by North Korea to restart long-range missile tests would wipe out years of effort and peace talks.

Moon, who has repeatedly pursued peace talks with the North during his five-year term, is due to step down in May. South Korea allows the president to stay in power for only one term. The South Korean president said that despite the lack of progress in the nuclear talks, “necessary contacts” between Moon and Kim are ongoing. He described the end of the Trump-Kim talks as “very regrettable” without an agreement, adding that the two sides should have taken a more proactive approach to reaching an agreement.

“It would have been best if a ‘big deal’ had been reached… If that was too hard, however, I think a ‘small deal’ should have been sought to take a phased approach.”

Although Trump’s successor US President Joe Biden has pursued a more muted approach to North Korean diplomacy, Moon said he expected that another summit between the US leader and Kim would take place “eventually”.

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