Kim spurns Washington, reaches out to Seoul
Seoul, Sep 30 (EFE).- North Korea’s leader has said that Washington has not changed its “hostile policy” against Pyongyang, throwing doubt on denuclearization dialogue restarting anytime soon, however he promised to restore communication hotlines with Seoul in the coming days.
“The U.S. remains utterly unchanged in posing military threats and pursuing hostile policy toward the DPRK but employs more cunning ways and methods in doing so, as proven by the deeds done by it over the past eight months since the emergence of its new administration,” Kim Jong-un told a Wednesday parliamentary session held in Pyongyang, according to state news agency KCNA on Thursday.
Following the coming to power of President Joe Biden in January, the United States has insisted on resuming talks anytime, anywhere without preconditions to try to reactivate the dialogue on denuclearization, stalled since the failed Hanoi summit in 2019.
According to KCNA, Kim said “the US is touting ‘diplomatic engagement’ and ‘dialogue without preconditions’ but it is no more than a petty trick for deceiving the international community and hiding its hostile acts.”
Kim’s speech came two days after the regime tested a new hypersonic missile.
It was the third weapons test in the last two weeks, a period in which the peninsula saw an arms escalation, as Seoul responded to the North by launching its own ballistic missile from a submarine and announced the development of new weapons.
However, Kim appealed to South Korea, with whom his country is still technically at war, announcing that communication hotlines with Seoul that it cut off in August will be restored at the beginning of October “as part of the efforts for realizing the expectations and desire of the entire Korean nation to see the earlier recovery of the north-south relations from the present deadlock and durable peace settling in the Korean peninsula.”
“We have neither aim nor reason to provoke south Korea and no idea to harm it and it is necessary for south Korea to promptly get rid of the delusion,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
Recently, his sister Kim Yo-jong released communiqués urging Seoul to change its “hostile policy and unequal double standards” towards the North Korean regime if it wants to mend ties.
In that sense, Seoul and Washington “are carrying out fearsome military activities that go beyond what is permissible, U.S. and south Korea are destroying the stability and balance around the Korean peninsula,” Kim was quoted as saying.
Before signing a peace treaty, as recently proposed by South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the United Nations, Kim said: “It is the invariable demand repeatedly explained by us to ensure the respect for each other and withdraw the partial view, unfair and double-dealing attitude and hostile viewpoint and policies towards the other side before declaring the termination of war.”
Following rounds of diplomatic contacts in 2018, relations between the North and South have cooled since the Hanoi summit and are currently at a standstill. EFE
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