[PAP20191209098801848] People watch a TV screen showing a file image of a ground test of North Korea's rocket engine during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday. Yonhap

By Do Je-hae

North Korea's "very important test" at a missile and rocket launch site in Dongchang-ri Sunday (KST) has triggered fears that the Kim Jong-un regime is getting ready to test an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the coming weeks.

President Donald Trump has promoted his previous summits with Kim as some of his most visible diplomatic achievements, but a possible restart of North Korea's long-range missile program has cast serious doubts about the actual effectiveness of the 2018 agreement in Singapore on the North's denuclearization. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. would be "at war" with North Korea if he had not been elected.

A new ICBM test would be a real blow to the U.S. leader's diplomatic capacity and global leadership credentials, according to political analysts here.

The U.S. president is already facing criticism for his unilateralism and protectionism. He has also faced harsh headlines within and outside the U.S. for policies that have strained relations with allies, such as his demand for a whopping 400 percent increase in South Korea's annual share of the cost for stationing U.S. troops in Korea to $5 billion.

"Trump has insulted international institutions and abandoned allies from Syria to the Korean Peninsula," Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Center of Liberal Strategies said in a recent column. As Trump increasingly loses the trust of the international community as a global leader, it is feared that a possible collapse of the denuclearization talks with North Korea will significantly hamper his diplomatic legacy ahead of the U.S. presidential campaign.