North Korea Conducts Another Test at Long-range Rocket Site

North Korea says it successfully performed another “crucial test” at its long-range rocket launch site that would further strengthen its “reliable strategic nuclear deterrent.”

The announcement on Saturday comes as North Korea continues to pressure the Trump administration over an end-of-year deadline set by leader Kim Jong Un to salvage faltering nuclear negotiations.

North Korea’s Academy of Defense Science did not specify what was tested on Friday. Just days earlier, the North said it conducted a “very important test” at the site, prompting speculation that it involved a new engine for either a space launch vehicle or an intercontinental ballistic missile.

This U.S. Air Force handout photo shows an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launching during an operational test at 1:13 a.m. Pacific Time, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Pentagon Tests Long-Banned Ballistic Missile Over Pacific

The Pentagon says it's conducted a flight test of a missile that had been banned under a treaty that the United States and Russia abandoned last summer

The North Korean announcement suggests that the country is preparing to do something to provoke the United States if Washington doesn’t back down and make concessions in deadlocked nuclear negotiations.