Pyongyang threatens to call off summit with Trump
SEOUL: North Korea threw next month’s unprecedented summit between Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump into doubt yesterday, threatening weeks of diplomatic progress by saying it may reconsider if Washington insists on pursuing a one-sided denuclearisation deal.
The North’s official KCNA news agency said earlier Pyongyang had called off high-level talks with Seoul in the first sign of trouble in what had been warming ties.
Citing first vice minister of foreign affairs Kim Kye Gwan, KCNA later said the fate of the US-North Korea summit, as well as bilateral relations, ‘would be clear’ if Washington spoke of a ‘Libya-style’ denuclearisation for the North.
“If the US 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.
Kim specifically criticised US national security adviser John Bolton, who has called for North Korea to quickly give up its nuclear arsenal in a deal that mirrors Libya’s abandonment of its weapons of mass destruction.
North Korea previously clashed with Bolton when he worked under the Bush administration, calling him ‘human scum’ and a ‘bloodsucker’.
“We shed light on the quality
If the US 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, first vice-minister of foreign affairs
of Bolton already in the past, and we do not hide our feeling of repugnance towards him,” Kim said.
The statements, combined with joint military drills by South Korean and US warplanes, mark a dramatic reversal in tone from recent months when both sides embraced efforts to negotiate.
North Korea had announced it would publicly shut its nuclear test site next week. Trump and Kim are scheduled to meet in Singapore on June 12.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday the United States would agree to lift sanctions on North Korea if it agreed to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons programme.
However, Kim Kye Gwan’s statement appeared to reject such an arrangement, saying North Korea would never give up its nuclear programme in exchange for economic trade with the United States.
North Korea has always defended its nuclear and missile programmes as a necessary deterrent against perceived aggression by the United States, which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 195053 Korean War.
South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa spoke to Pompeo by telephone on Wednesday and discussed North Korea’s postponement of the talks with the South, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Pompeo told Kang that Washington would continue to make preparations for the U. SNorth Korea summit, bearing in mind the recent action by North Korea, it said.
Kim Kye Gwan’s statement came only hours after North Korea denounced the US- South Korean military exercises as a provocation and pulled out of the talks with the South.
An earlier KCNA report angrily attacked the ‘ Max Thunder’ air combat drills, which it said involved US stealth fighters and B-52 bombers.
American stealth F-22 fighters were spotted in South Korea earlier in May ahead of the exercises, but a spokesman for the US military command in South Korea said that no B- 52s were scheduled to take part in the drills.
Neither B- 52s or B-1B bombers were present at last year’s Max Thunder drills, according to a South Korean defence ministry official.
Any cancellation of the June 12 summit in Singapore, the first meeting between a serving US president and a North Korean leader, would deal a major blow to what would be the biggest diplomatic achievement of Trump’s presidency.
Kim Jong Un’s latest move could be aimed at testing Trump’s willingness to make concessions ahead of the summit, which is to be preceded by a visit to Washington next week by South Korean president Moon Jae-in.
A US government expert on North Korea said Kim may also be trying to gauge whether Trump is willing to walk away from the meeting.
China said yesterday all parties should demonstrate goodwill and sincerity to create a conducive atmosphere for denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula. — Reuters