US ‘spoiling the mood’ after detente: N. Korea
pyongyang — With just weeks to go before President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jongun are expected to hold their firstever summit, Pyongyang on Sunday criticised what it called “misleading” claims that Trump’s policy of maximum political pressure and sanctions are what drove the North to the negotiating table.
The North’s official news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman warning the claims are a “dangerous attempt” to ruin a budding detente on the Korean Peninsula after Kim’s summit late last month with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
At the summit, Kim agreed to a number of measures aimed at improving North-South ties and indicated he is willing to discuss the denuclearisation of the peninsula,
The US is deliberately provoking the DPRK at the time when the situation on the Korean Peninsula is moving towards peace and reconciliation. North Korea
though exactly what that would entail and what conditions the North might require have not yet been explained.
Trump and senior US officials have suggested repeatedly that Washington’s tough policy towards North Korea, along with pressure on its main trading partner China, have played a decisive role in turning around what had been an extremely tense situation. Just last year, as Kim was launching longrange missiles at a record pace and trading vulgar insults with Trump, it would have seemed unthinkable for the topic of denuclearisation to be on the table.
But the North’s statement on Sunday seemed to be aimed at strengthening Kim’s position going into his meeting with Trump. Pyongyang claims Kim himself is the driver of the current situation. “The US is deliberately provoking the DPRK at the time when the situation on the Korean Peninsula is moving towards peace and reconciliation,” the spokesman was quoted as saying.
Kim and Trump are expected to meet later this month or in early June.
Trump has indicated the date and place have been chosen. —