North Korea warns Trump to ease off tough talk

Spokesman says recent thaw being jeopardized

North Korea warned the United States on Sunday not to misread peace overtures as a sign of weakness, accusing the Trump administration of deliberately provoking Pyongyang with tough talk and a show of military strength.

“It would not be conducive to addressing the issue if the U.S. miscalculates the peace-loving intention of the DPRK (North Korea) as a sign of ‘weakness’ and continues to pursue its pressure and military threats,” a spokesman for the North Korean foreign ministry told the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

The criticism came weeks before an anticipated summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and after last month’s historic meeting between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

At that meeting, Kim pledged to work toward denuclearizing the peninsula and to dismantle his nuclear missile testing site. He also agreed to move his nation’s clocks forward by 30 minutes to correspond to South Korea’s time zone, an action that took place Saturday.

Despite the gains, the North Korean spokesman on Sunday accused the Trump administration of misleading the public by claiming Pyongyang is motivated by fear of U.S. military strength and concerns about aggressive economic sanctions put in place because of the North’s nuclear and missile programs.

Movement of U.S. military assets into the region and talk of human rights violations also have hurt the process, the spokesman said. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency suggested the military assets include eight U.S. F-22 stealth fighter jets recently sent to participate in the annual joint South Korea-U.S. air training.

“This act cannot be construed otherwise than a dangerous attempt to ruin the hard-won atmosphere of dialogue and bring the situation back to square one,” the spokesman said.

A thaw in relations between the two nations in recent weeks drew international optimism that a deal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula could be struck.

The relative warmth between the two leaders even prompted talk that three Americans held by North Korea might soon be released. Last week, Trump tweeted that the Obama administration had “long been asking for three hostages to be released from a North Korean Labor camp, but to no avail. Stay tuned!”