North Korea vexed by US demands over nuclear agreement
NORTH KOREA yesterday said the US was acting with “alarming” impatience over denuclearisation, after Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state, stressed the need to maintain the pressure of full sanctions on Pyongyang.
The contrasting comments at a security forum in Singapore came after a UN report showed Pyongyang was continuing with its nuclear and missile programmes and evading sanctions through ship-to-ship oil transfers.
At historic talks with Donald Trump, the US president, in June, Kim Jongun, the North Korean dictator, signed up to a vague commitment to “denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula” – a far cry from long-standing US demands for complete, verifiable and irreversible disarmament.
While US officials have publicly been optimistic about the agreement, Pyongyang appears to have made little substantial progress and Washington has become concerned that some UN member states are easing sanctions.
At the Asean regional forum, Ri Yong Ho, North Korea’s foreign minister, criticised US impatience.
“What is alarming, however, is the insistent moves manifested within the US to go back to the old, far from its leader’s intention,” he said, according to a statement.
Since the June agreement, Pyong- yang had taken “goodwill measures”, including a halt on nuclear and missile tests and “dismantling a nuclear test ground”, he said.
“However, the United States, instead of responding to these measures, is raising its voice louder for maintaining the sanctions against the DPRK,” he said, using the initials of the North’s official name.
“As long as the US does not show in practice its strong will to remove our concerns, there will be no case whereby we will move forward first unilaterally,” Mr Ri added.
Earlier at the same forum, Mr Pompeo said he was emphasising “the importance of maintaining diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea” but also said that he was “optimistic” about the prospects for progress when it came to North Korean denuclearisation.
At the meeting, the US delegation also delivered a letter from Mr Trump intended for Mr Kim, by passing it to Mr Ri, said the state department.
On sanctions, Mr Pompeo singled out Russia after reports suggested Moscow breached sanctions by granting work permits to North Korean workers.
Cutting off oil and fuel to the North would require enforcement by China, which supplies most of North Korea’s energy needs, but also by Russia, which delivers some oil to Pyongyang.