North Korea says no need to hold talks with US
Seoul, July 4 (efe-epa).- A senior North Korean official on Saturday said there was no need to hold talks with the United States, accusing Washington using the bonhomie with Pyongyang to manage its political crisis.
The remarks by senior diplomat Choe Son-hui, who is serving as the first vice foreign minister in the government of Kim-jong Un, days after South Korea President Moon Jae-in said he would push for a meeting between Kim and President Donald Trump before November’s presidential election in the US.
“We do not feel any need to sit face to face with the US as it does not consider the DPRK-US dialogue nothing more than a tool for grappling its political crisis,” Choe Son-hui said in comments reported by the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA).
She said the time was “very sensitive” and “even the slightest misjudgment and misstep would incur fatal and irrevocable consequences”.
“We cannot but be shocked at the story about the summit indifferent to the present situation of the DPRK-US relations.”
Choe Son-hui said North Korea had already “worked out a detailed strategic timetable for putting under control the long-term threat from the US”. However, there were no details about the timetable
“There will never be any adjustment and change in our policy, conditional on external parameters like the internal political schedule of someone,” she said.
Kim and Trump have met three times since June 2018 to reach an agreement for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in exchange for the US easing international sanctions that have crippled the North Korean economy.
However, the peace process has stalemated since their last meeting in June 2019.
The two leaders met for the first summit in Singapore in 2018 and agreed to work toward complete denuclearization of the peninsula, better ties, and lasting peace in the restive region.
The second summit in Hanoi in February last year ended without an agreement following differences between the two sides mainly on the easing of the sanctions.
The two leaders met again in June last at the inter-Korean border and agreed to resume working-level negotiations.
The talks between working groups were held in Stockholm in October without any progress. EFE-EPA
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