<p class="title">UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is "deeply concerned" that North Korea has indicated it could resume nuclear and missile tests, a UN spokesman said on Wednesday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The Secretary-General very much hopes that the tests will not resume, in line with relevant Security Council resolutions. Non-proliferation remains a fundamental pillar of global nuclear security and must be preserved," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said this week that there were no longer grounds for Pyongyang to be bound by a self-declared moratorium on intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear bomb testing and that a "new strategic weapon" would be introduced in the near future.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Diplomatic engagement is the only pathway to sustainable peace," Dujarric also said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">US President Donald Trump - who in 2018 became the first American leader to meet with a North Korean leader - said after Kim's remarks that the leader had signed a denuclearization contract and Trump thought Kim was a "man of his word."</p>.<p class="bodytext">Trump has repeatedly pointed to the moratorium, in place since 2017, as a sign that his policy of engagement with North Korea was working.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Kim has complained the United States had continued joint military drills with South Korea, adopted cutting-edge weapons and imposed sanctions while making "gangster-like demands."</p>.<p class="bodytext">Last month, Pyongyang warned Washington of a possible "Christmas gift" after Kim gave the United States until the end of the year to propose new concessions in talks over his country's nuclear arsenal.</p>.<p class="bodytext">North Korea experts said that Kim's remarks - made during an hours-long plenum speech - were likely directed at his party, military, and government officials in North Korea, preparing the country for another period of economic hardship as it prepares for a long stalemate with the United States.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The main points, almost certainly, were not headlines about weapons development or a possible resumption of testing," said Robert Carlin, a North Korea expert at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"It means preparing the economy and the people for a long-term confrontation with the US," he said, adding that the message was "no longer working for relief of sanctions but girding to live under them." </p>
<p class="title">UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is "deeply concerned" that North Korea has indicated it could resume nuclear and missile tests, a UN spokesman said on Wednesday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The Secretary-General very much hopes that the tests will not resume, in line with relevant Security Council resolutions. Non-proliferation remains a fundamental pillar of global nuclear security and must be preserved," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said this week that there were no longer grounds for Pyongyang to be bound by a self-declared moratorium on intercontinental ballistic missile and nuclear bomb testing and that a "new strategic weapon" would be introduced in the near future.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Diplomatic engagement is the only pathway to sustainable peace," Dujarric also said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">US President Donald Trump - who in 2018 became the first American leader to meet with a North Korean leader - said after Kim's remarks that the leader had signed a denuclearization contract and Trump thought Kim was a "man of his word."</p>.<p class="bodytext">Trump has repeatedly pointed to the moratorium, in place since 2017, as a sign that his policy of engagement with North Korea was working.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Kim has complained the United States had continued joint military drills with South Korea, adopted cutting-edge weapons and imposed sanctions while making "gangster-like demands."</p>.<p class="bodytext">Last month, Pyongyang warned Washington of a possible "Christmas gift" after Kim gave the United States until the end of the year to propose new concessions in talks over his country's nuclear arsenal.</p>.<p class="bodytext">North Korea experts said that Kim's remarks - made during an hours-long plenum speech - were likely directed at his party, military, and government officials in North Korea, preparing the country for another period of economic hardship as it prepares for a long stalemate with the United States.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The main points, almost certainly, were not headlines about weapons development or a possible resumption of testing," said Robert Carlin, a North Korea expert at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"It means preparing the economy and the people for a long-term confrontation with the US," he said, adding that the message was "no longer working for relief of sanctions but girding to live under them." </p>