All Eyes on Kim Jong-un's Next Step

Concerns are rising that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may go back to his hardline and provocative stance against Washington in the wake of the breakdown of his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Last week, the two unpredictable leaders held the two-day-long summit in Vietnam's capital Hanoi amid hopes for them to find a breakthrough in their stalled talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

But with Trump and Kim signing no deal there, their recent momentum for dialogue has hit a snag. Ranking North Korean officials for the regime's summit delegation, its Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho and Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, held a surprise press conference in Hanoi to place the blame on the U.S. for the failure of the summit.

"As of now, a realistic and beneficial choice for Trump is to take the first step in fulfilling the June 12 Singapore Declaration by accepting the North's well-intentioned proposal," Chosun Sinbo, a pro-North Korean newspaper based in Japan, said Wednesday.

It also stepped up criticism of Trump, saying the U.S. president should take corresponding steps to build trust with the North.

"Unless Trump wants to lose a chance for the North's denuclearization for long, the U.S. president should speed up implementing measures to establish trust with the North," it said.

The hostile rhetoric came at a time when the North is showing signs of rebuilding the Tongchang-ri missile engine test facility, in what is apparently seen as the regime's reaction to the summit outcome.

On Tuesday, National Intelligence Service (NIS) chief Suh Hoon is known to have said during a meeting...