N. Korea critical of ‘gangsterlike’ US
SEOUL/TOKYO: North Korea yesterday accused the United States of making ‘‘gangsterlike’’ demands in talks over its nuclear programme, contradicting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hours after he left saying the old enemies had made progress on key issues.
During a day and ahalf of talks in Pyongyang, Pompeo had sought to hammer out details on how to dismantle North Korea’s nuclear programmes, including a timeline.
As he departed, he said he had made progress on ‘‘almost all of the central issues,’’ although work remained to be done.
Hours later, Pyongyang gave a much more negative assessment, saying Washington had broken the spirit of last month’s summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jongun.
‘‘The US side came up only with its unilateral and gangsterlike demand for denuclearisation,’’ a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.
He said Pompeo’s delegation insisted on unilateral complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation, known as CVID. He argued instead for both sides to take a series of simultaneous steps as a ‘‘shortcut’’ to a nuclearfree Korean peninsula.
‘‘The highlevel talks this time brought us in a dangerous situation where we may be shaken in our unshakable will for denuclearisation, rather than consolidating trust between the DPRK and the US.’’
There was no immediate comment on the KCNA statement from the State Department or the White House. The contrasting comments raised questions over whether North Korea is committed to abandoning the nuclear programmes it has developed for decades and has seen as key to its survival.
Trump and Kim pledged at their June 12 summit meeting in Singapore to move towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Trump has declared on Twitter that North Korea no longer poses a nuclear threat.
But Kim has yet to provide details of how or when North Korea might dismantle the weapons programme.
Also, leaked US intelligence findings concluded North Korea does not intend to completely give up its nuclear programme.
The USNorth Korea talks are being closely watched across Asia. Pompeo yesterday in Tokyo met his Japanese and South Korean counterparts and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.