Don’t take credit for talks, N Korea tells US

NORTH Korea has warned that claiming it was forced into talks by US pressure risked returning the peninsula “back to square one”, as the world awaits a landmark summit between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump

The pair are preparing for the first ever face-to-face meeting between a sitting American president and North Korean leader, with a date and venue to be announced soon.

Their meeting comes after a historic summit between Kim and Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, in the demilitarised zone that divides their countries, during which Kim gave a tentative commitment to ridding his country of its nuclear weapons and facilities.

Mr Trump has credited his “maximum pressure” campaign of tough rhetoric and tightened sanctions for a breakthrough with Pyongyang, saying last week that Washington’s “strength is going to keep us out of nuclear war”.

A spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry accused the US of “deliberately provoking” Pyongyang in an effort to undermine the current “atmosphere of dialogue”.

Describing Pyongyang’s recent move as a “sign of weakness” would “not be conducive” to talks, and may “bring the situation back to square one,” he added.

The spokesman did not explicitly mention the summit, and Pyongyang has yet to make any formal announcement of the planned meeting.

Tensions have run high between the two men over the past year, with both leaders trading threats of war and personal insults that prompted global concern.