CAMBRIDGE, England -- Last October, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly set off an international crisis by claiming that North Korean officials had told him that Pyongyang was developing nuclear weapons. The officials denied saying that.
The North Korean officials claimed that in response to Kelly's "highhanded and arrogant" display of a "hardline policy of hostility" they had simply stated that North Korea had a right to develop such capability.
Kelly now appears to be at it again, setting off another crisis based on what he says a North Korean said to him. This time he claims that Li Gun, deputy director of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's U.S. Affairs Office, told him that North Korea "has atomic weapons and that it might test, sell or use, depending on U.S. actions."