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North Korea missile test signals nuclear resolve amid Iran war
North Korea's launch of a missile from a naval destroyer last week — which Kim Jong-un said was making 'satisfactory progress' toward arming ships with nuclear weapons — is being read by analysts as a deliberate message that Pyongyang will never give up its arsenal in light of the US attack on Iran. The test reinforces a long-held North Korean calculation that only nuclear weapons guarantee regime survival, a view the Iran conflict has made harder for any diplomat to rebut. Speculation is meanwhile mounting that Kim and Trump could hold a summit as early as this month.
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