N. Korea's continued test-firing even after the end of joint military drills come due to change in political landscape: Expert

북한의 잇단 도발, ‘비핵화 협상 노력’ 깰 셈인가North Korea launched projectiles into the East Sea again.This goes against what its leader apparently told President Trump earlier this month: that the firing would stop once the joint Seoul-Washington drills are over.Lee Ji-won has the details.North Korea fired yet another round of projectiles on Saturday,... the seventh in the space of a month.This launch is different, though, coming after South Korea and the U.S. had finished their joint military drills earlier in the week, which the North had heavily criticized.According to President Donald Trump earlier this month, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un himself apologized in his letter for testing the short range missiles and said that it would stop when the exercises end.North Korea expert Shin Beom-chul says the North is responding to changes in the regional security landscape."I think the North saw the change in the situation. How its relationship with China has again strengthened,... while the South Korea-U.S.-Japan trilateral cooperation has weakend. Thus, it would think that if it pressures the U.S. a bit more, it can get a better deal out of them."Shin also saw the launch as part of an effort to delay the talks.The leaders of Pyeongyang and Washington had promised in their surprise meeting at Panmunjeom in late June that they would restart their working-level talks in two to three weeks time.Even in his letter to Trump, Kim said that he would like their teams to resume negotiations as soon as the drills are over.But last week, North Korea's foreign minister hinted that the talks might not happen,... lashing out at U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for saying that the North will remain under America's toughest sanctions as long as it doesn't denuclearize."The North is intentionally delaying the talks as it knows the U.S. isn't willing to ease sanctions as a corresponding measure now. And it, too, is still not willing to give anything more than the Yeongbyeon nuclear facility. So the two sides are again back to square one. Because Pyeongyang's ties with Beijing improved, the economic situation isn't so bad for the North, and so it thinks time is on its side."The expert said, therefore, that the working-level talks are likely to be further postponed until one or the other side budges,... and there is a high chance of North Korea continuing to fire its projectiles.Lee Ji-won, Arirang News.