Seoul: North Korea has said it may reconsider summit level talks between Kim Jong un and US President Donald Trump, expected to be held next month in Singapore if Washington pressurizes Pyongyang to unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons.
North Korea also called off high-level talks with Seoul which was to be held on Wednesday.
North Korea’s official news agency KCNA quoted first Vice Minister of North Korea’s Foreign Affairs Kim Kye Gwan as saying that the fate of North Korea-US summit, as well as bilateral relations “would be clear” if the US spoke of “Libya-style” denuclearization of the North.
“If the U.S. is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue and cannot but reconsider our proceeding to the DPRK-US summit,” Kim Kye Gwan said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
On June 12, Kim and Donald Trump are scheduled to meet in Singapore.
The North Korean Vice Minister criticized US National Security Adviser John Bolton who has asked North Korea to speedily give up its nuclear weapons.
On Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said America would agree to lift sanctions on North Korea if it agreed to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons programme.
But given Kim Kye Gwan’s statement that North Korea would never give up its nuclear programme in exchange for trade with the US, Pyongyang appears to have made up its mind that it would be a futile exercise to conduct high-level talks with Washington.
“We have already stated our intention for denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and made clear on several occasions that precondition for denuclearisation is to put an end to anti-DPRK hostile policy and nuclear threats and blackmail of the US,” Kim said.
North Korea has always defended its nuclear and missile programmes as a necessary deterrent against perceived aggression by the US, which keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea after the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea has maintained for a long that it is open to giving up its nuclear arsenal if the US withdraws its troops from South Korea and ends its “nuclear umbrella” security alliance with Seoul.
