North Korea’s foreign minister has urged the United States to keep moving past what he called seven decades of entrenched hostility if it wants to restart stalled negotiations meant to rid Pyongyang of its nuclear bombs.
Boiling the rivals’ diplomatic standoff down to the North’s deepening feeling of mistrust, Ri Yong Ho sought to lay out a vision of peace on the troubled Korean Peninsula — provided the North gets what it wants from the US.
Mr Ri, standing at a podium at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, said North Korea was ready to implement the points that his leader, Kim Jong Un, and US president Donald Trump agreed to in June during a summit in Singapore.
But his comments were infused with what came across as impatience at the slow pace of progress in a process the world hopes will cause Pyongyang to abandon an arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles that aims to accurately target the entire US mainland.
In recent weeks, Mr Kim has said he would permanently dismantle North Korea’s main nuclear complex, but only if the US takes unspecified corresponding measures.
Mr Kim has also promised to accept international inspectors to monitor the closing of a key missile test site and launch pad.
The North, however, does not “see any corresponding response” from Washington. On the contrary, Mr Ri said, the US is increasing pressure and sanctions.
“The perception that sanctions can bring us on our knees is a pipe dream of the people who are ignorant of us,” he said, adding that the continued sanctions were “deepening our mistrust” and deadlocking the current diplomacy.
“Without any trust in the US, there will be no confidence in our national security…and under such circumstances there is no way we will unilaterally disarm ourselves first,” he said.
There was no immediate response from Washington. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week he would return to Pyongyang to set up a sequel to the Singapore meeting between Mr Kim and Mr Trump.
Once the Singapore agreements are implemented, the “current trend toward detente will turn into durable peace and the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula will also be achieved,” Mr Ri said. “The Korean Peninsula, the hottest spot in the globe, will become the cradle of peace and prosperity.”
After their summit in Singapore, Mr Trump and Mr Kim issued a vague statement about a nuclear-free peninsula without describing when and how it would occur.
Post-summit nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang were rocky and quickly settled into a stalemate. There is widespread scepticism that Pyongyang is serious about renouncing an arsenal that it likely sees as the only way to guarantee its safety.
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