N.K.’s Kim seeks better ties with South

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — North Korea leader Kim Jong Un expressed willingness to restore stalled communication lines with South Korea in coming days while shrugging off U.S. offers for dialogue as “cunning ways” to conceal its hostility against the North, state media reported.

Kim’s statement is an apparent effort to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington as he wants South

Korea to help him win relief from crippling U.S.-led economic sanctions and other concessions. Pyongyang this month has offered conditional talks with Seoul alongside its first missile firings in six months and stepped-up criticism of the U.S.

The U.N. Security Council delayed an emergency closed meeting to discuss North Korea’s recent tests until today at the request of Russia, China and other council members who said they needed more time to prepare, diplomats said. The meeting was requested by the U.S., the U.K. and France.

During a speech at his country’s parliament on Wednesday, Kim said the restoration in October of cross-border hotlines — which have been dormant for over a year — would realize the Korean people’s wishes for a peace between the two Koreas.

Kim still accused South Korea of being “bent on begging external support and cooperation while clamoring for international cooperation in servitude to the U.S.,” rather than committing to resolving the matters independently between the Koreas.

On the U.S., Kim Jong Un dismissed repeated U.S. offers to resume talks without preconditions, calling them an attempt to hide America’s “hostile policy” and “military threats” that he said remain unchanged.

“The U.S. remains utterly unchanged in posing military threats and pursuing hostile policy toward (North Korea) but employs more cunning ways and methods in doing so.”