Politics

Kim’s sister says new summit with the US ‘unnecessary and useless’

Seoul, Jul 10 (efe-epa).- The sister of the North Korean dictator ruled out Friday a summit between Pyongyang and Washington this year, considering it “unnecessary and useless.”

Kim Yo-jong, member of the Central Committee of the North Korean Workers’ Party, is Kim Jong-un’s younger sister. Often seen by his side and with a growing political profile in the country, analysts consider her a figure who in the future may come to succeed Kim as head of state.

“As long as there is no decisive change in the US position, a summit between the DPRK and the US is unnecessary and useless this year and in the future at least for us,” she said, according to Yonhap news agency.

Her comments were released by North Korea’s state KCNA media outlet shortly after the visit of the United States Deputy Secretary of State and Special Representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, to Seoul.

In his visit this week, Biegun stressed that Washington remains open to dialog with Pyongyang in the future and was confident that progress will be made to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the ultimate goal of the three summits that since June 2018 have been held between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim.

Their last meeting, on the inter-Korean border on June 30, 2019, served to relaunch dialog between Washington and Pyongyang, although since then not only has there been no progress made but North Korean authorities and state media have served up numerous hostile comments towards the United States.

In her statement, Kim Yo-jong said that there will be no new summit “as long as there is no decisive change in the US position” with the North.

“We are not saying we are not going to denuclearize, but that we cannot denuclearize now,” she said.

The Pyongyang regime has been insisting that Washington lift its economic sanctions on North Korea as a sign of good faith in the negotiation process, and the US refusal to accept it was the main stumbling block that led to failure of the second summit between Kim and Trump in Hanoi in February 2019. EFE-EPA

asb-ag/tw

Related Articles

Back to top button