AFP |
North Korea said on Friday its deadlocked nuclear talks with Washington “will never be resumed” unless the US adopts a new approach, again blaming it for the collapse of the Hanoi summit in February.
US President Donald Trump’s second meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un broke up without an agreement or even a joint statement as the two failed to reach a deal on sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up of its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic programs.
U.S. Is Accountable for Rupture of Hanoi Summit Talks: DPRK Foreign Ministry Spokesperson https://t.co/yo8IQinOPN
— KCNA Watch (@KCNAWatch) May 25, 2019
According to reports Trump gave Kim a written list of demands and Pyongyang has since accused Washington of acting in “bad faith”, giving it until the end of this year to change its approach. The North’s statement on Friday, released by its official news agency KCNA, reiterated its stance.
Pyongyang’s foreign ministry also denounced it as an “outright denial” of the spirit of the Singapore summit Trump and Kim held last year.
The “underlying cause” of the “setback” in Hanoi was “the arbitrary and dishonest position taken by the United States”, it quoted a North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson as saying.
Hanoi Nuclear Summit
A spokesman for North Korea’s foreign ministry accused the United States of trying to shift the blame for the breakdown of the second summit between Kim and Trump, in Hanoi in February, by raising a “completely irrelevant issue”.
The US had insisted on “a method which is totally impossible to get through”, it said. Unless Washington “comes forward with a new method of calculation”, it said, “the DPRK-US dialogue will never be resumed and by extension, the prospect for resolving the nuclear issue will be much gloomy”.
“We hereby make it clear once again that the United States would not be able to move us even an inch with the device it is now weighing in its mind, and the further its mistrust and hostile acts toward the DPRK grow, the fiercer our reaction will be,” the statement said, referring to North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Read more: Kim warns N. Korea could consider change of track
KCNA refrained from criticizing Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo or National Security Adviser John Bolton by name.
Sanctions on Korea
The report came about a week after Pyongyang had demanded the United Nations take “urgent measures” to help return a cargo ship seized by the US for alleged sanctions violations, calling the move a “heinous” act.
Read more: Korea demands action on America seizing its ship
Pyongyang’s foreign ministry also denounced it as an “outright denial” of the spirit of the Singapore summit Trump and Kim held last year.
Earlier this month the North also sought to raise the pressure by launching several short-range missiles, its first such tests for more than a year.
Read more: North Korea fires short-range ‘projectiles’ into sea: Seoul
“And the further its mistrust and hostile acts towards the DPRK grow, the fiercer our reaction will be,” KCNA said.
AFP story with additional input by GVS news desk