The North came short of threatening to abandon the ongoing nuclear negotiations with the US.
North Korea has warned it could revive a state policy aimed at strengthening its nuclear arsenal if the United States (US) does not lift economic sanctions against the country. The statement released by the Foreign Ministry on November 2 came amid a sense of unease between Washington and Seoul over the use of sanctions and pressure to get the North to relinquish its nuclear program.
The ministry said North Korea could bring back its “pyongjin” policy of simultaneously advancing its nuclear force and economic development if the US doesn’t change its stance.
The North came short of threatening to abandon the ongoing nuclear negotiations with the US.
But it accused Washington of derailing commitments made by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump at their June summit in Singapore to work toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, without describing how and when it would occur.
“The US thinks that its oft-repeated ‘sanctions and pressure’ leads to ‘denuclearisation.’ We cannot help laughing at such a foolish idea,” said the statement, released under the name of the director of the ministry’s Institute for American Studies.
“The improvement of relations and sanctions is incompatible.”
Following a series of provocative nuclear and missile tests last year, Kim shifted to diplomacy when he met with Trump between three summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who lobbied hard to revive nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Seoul.
