Biden policy shows hostile US intent

North Korea lashed out at the United States and its allies in South Korea in a series of statements saying recent comments from Washington are proof of a hostile policy that requires a corresponding response from Pyongyang.

The statements, carried on state news agency KCNA, come after the White House on Friday said U.S. officials had completed a months-long review of North Korean policy, and underscore the challenges U.S. President Joe Biden faces as he seeks to distance his approach from the failures of his predecessors. read more

In one statement, a Foreign Ministry spokesman accused Washington of insulting the dignity of the country's supreme leadership by criticizing North Korea's human rights situation.

The human rights criticism is a provocation that shows the United States is "girding itself up for an allout showdown" with North Korea, and will be answered accordingly, the unnamed spokesman said. In a separate statement, Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of U.S. Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, cited Biden's first policy speech to Congress on Wednesday, where the new president said nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran posed threats that would be addressed through "diplomacy and stern deterrence."

Kwon said it is illogical and an encroachment upon North Korea's right to self-defence for the United States to call its defensive deterrence a threat. "His statement clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy toward the DPRK as it had been done by the U.S. for over half a century," he said, using the initials for North Korea's official name. Kwon said U.S. talk of diplomacy is aimed at covering up its hostile acts, and its deterrence is just a means for posing nuclear threats to North Korea.

Now that Biden's policy has become clear, North Korea "will be compelled to press for corresponding measures, and with time the U.S. will find itself in a very grave situation," he concluded. Talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to surrender its nuclear weapons program have been stalled since a series of summits between Biden's predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un failed to result in a deal.

The Biden policy attempts to strike a middle ground between Trump's efforts, as well as those of Democrat Barack Obama, who refused serious diplomatic engagement with North Korea absent any steps by Pyongyang to reduce tensions. The White House and State Department did not immediately comment on the latest North

Korean statements.

The North Korean statements appear to echo comments by the ministry in March saying relations with the US would be shaped by the "principle of power for power and goodwill for goodwill," said Jenny Town, director of the US-based 38 North program, which tracks North Korea. "So for the US to keep emphasizing the threat, it keeps focus on the negative aspects of the relationship and will elicit negative responses," she said.

Markus Garlauskas, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council and former US national intelligence officer for North Korea, said Pyongyang's rhetoric is a reminder that the problem is bigger than terminology or tactics.