Kim’s speech this week comes after North was tested for what he said was a hypersonic gliding missile (File)
Seoul, South Korea:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un denounced America’s offer of talks as a “mask”, state media reported Thursday, and accused the Joe Biden administration of continuing a hostile policy against his nuclear-armed country. .
Talks between Pyongyang and Washington have effectively stalled since the collapse of the Hanoi summit between Kim and then-President Donald Trump over sanctions relief and what the North would be willing to give in return.
Under Biden, the United States has repeatedly offered to meet North Korean representatives anywhere, anytime, without any preconditions, while saying it would pursue nuclear disarmament.
But Kim condemned the announcements as “nothing more than a mask for his deceit and hostile acts and the extension of hostile policy from the previous administration”, the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported.
Under the new administration, “the US military intimidation and hostile policy against us has not changed at all, but has become smarter”, he said in a lengthy address to the Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA), the North’s one-party parliament.
North Korea has largely been spending its time in recent months as it assessed the Biden government and focused on domestic issues.
It has been on the back of a harsh self-imposed blockade since early last year to protect itself from the coronavirus pandemic, which has resulted in the economy suffering and eroding trade with major partner China.
But Kim’s speech this month was the latest in a series of actions with international ramifications.
This week, it tested what it said was a hypersonic gliding missile, and announced earlier this month that it had successfully fired a long-range cruise missile, after holding a small military parade.
The North’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs are banned under United Nations Security Council resolutions, and as a result it is subject to a number of international sanctions.
The United States condemned this week’s launch, but as recently as Wednesday, its North Korean envoy Sung Kim reiterated his offer of talks.
“We are strongly committed to finding a diplomatic way to complete the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” he told reporters. “It hasn’t changed at all.
“We had made several approaches to the DPRK and proposed dialogues on a wide range of topics, but we have not heard back and we hope to hear back soon.”
The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday on North Korea at the request of the United States, France and the United Kingdom, diplomatic sources told AFP on Wednesday.
North Korea has shown no desire to give up its arsenal, which it says it needs to defend itself against a US invasion.
In his SPA speech, Kim declared: “The most fundamental crisis that breaks the fundamentals of international peace and stability is the abuse of power and coercion by America and its followers.”
– ‘Double standard’ –
Washington and Seoul are security allies, and the United States deploys about 28,500 troops to the south to protect it from its neighbor.
Since then Pyongyang has repeatedly provoked the South and its President Moon Jae-in, and blew up a liaison office on the edge of the border created by Seoul.
At the UN General Assembly this month, Moon reiterated his call for a formal declaration of the end of the Korean War, where hostilities ended in 1953 with a ceasefire rather than a peace treaty.
But Kim said the South “still follows America,” and that “mutual respect must be guaranteed and unreasonable views and double standards should be abandoned” before a declaration of the end of the war can be agreed.
Nonetheless, he expressed a desire to restore the north-south communication lines in early October.
Seoul is also spending billions on military development as the two Koreas build up their weapons capabilities in what could become an arms race on the peninsula, which could have implications for neighboring Japan, China and the wider region.
This month, the South successfully tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) for the first time, making it one of a handful of countries with advanced technology, and this week, it held a ceremony to launch its third submarine did. Regarding carrying SLBMs.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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