Talks between North Korea and the US have ground to a halt of late.

It is a seeming stalemate nearly two months since Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un failed to reach a deal in Singapore at their second summit.

Mr Trump pulled back from agreeing to Mr Kim’s proposal – a lifting of the harshest sanctions on the North in return for suspending operations at North Korea’s largest nuclear facility.

Since then, there has been little to no communication, with even less room for negotiation.

Recently, there has been concern that Pyongyang might restart weapons testing – North Korea hadn’t launched a missile since November 2017.

The US Strategic Command and US Northern Command say they haven’t detected any missile.

Experts claim it was more likely that the test was a demonstration of a conventional weapons system, perhaps artillery or an anti-aircraft system.

What North Korea’s latest move does certainly look like is a warning – that unless negotiations with Washington restart, the two countries could once again be on a collision course.

It is also an attempt to refocus perhaps distracted minds – to grab America’s attention and get nuclear talks back in the centre of conversation with a good dose of provocative language.

In recent days, Kim Jong Un said he would give the US until the end of the year to produce some firm proposals to lift sanctions.

With this latest threat, it seems he was willing to raise the stakes sooner.

At home, he wants to be able to tell his people he’s secured some much needed economic relief with a deal with the US.

Mr Trump wants to tell America he’s secured something historic against all the odds.

He said he fell “in love” with Pyongyang’s leader and they could well share a table again.

But after all the talk, neither side has anything palatable enough for the other to eat.

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