US President Donald Trump talks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on December 24, 2019 (Nicholas Kamm)
<p>Palm Beach (United States) (AFP) – US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he hoped that North Korea would not deliver a missile test as its threatened "Christmas gift" that could reignite global tensions over its nuclear program.</p><p>North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has promised the unidentified "gift" — which could be a missile test — if the US does not make concessions in nuclear talks by the end of the year.</p><p>"We’ll find out what the surprise is and we’ll deal with it very successfully," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.</p><p>"Everybody’s got surprises for me, but let’s see what happens. I handle them as they come along."</p><p>"Maybe it’s a nice present, maybe it’s a present where he sends me a beautiful vase as opposed to a missile test," the president joked.</p><p>Talks on denuclearization as been largely deadlocked since a second summit between Trump and Kim in Hanoi collapsed at the start of this year.</p><p>Pyongyang has issued a series of increasingly assertive comments as its time limit approaches.</p><p>It has carried out a series of static tests at its Sohae rocket facility this month, after a number of weapons launches in recent weeks.</p><p></p>

Disclaimer: Validity of the above story is for 7 Days from original date of publishing. Source: AFP.