Putting weeks of Korean diplomacy in jeopardy the Kim Jong Un-led North Korea has now thrashed South Korea calling it ldquoincompetent
SEOUL, South Korea — Putting weeks of Korean diplomacy in jeopardy, the Kim Jong Un-led North Korea has now thrashed South Korea, calling it “incompetent.”
On Thursday, North Korea’s chief negotiator called the South Korean government “ignorant and incompetent” and threatened to halt all talks with the South unless its demands are met.
Ri Son Gwon, chairman of North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification further denounced U. S.-South Korean air combat drills too.
Gwon’s comments were the latest in a string of inflammatory statements made by the reclusive regime, which have marked a drastic change in tone after months of easing tension.
Earlier this week, North Korea called off high-level talks with South Korea and said the fate of the U. S.-North Korea summit was also in jeopardy.
North Korea’s First vice minister of foreign affairs Kim Kye Gwan said in a statement that the fate of the U. S.-North Korea summit, as well as bilateral relations, «would be clear» if Washington spoke of a «Libya-style» denuclearization for the North.
Pyongyang demanded that Washington doesn’t insist on pursuing a one-sided denuclearization deal.
Kim Kye Gwan said, «If the U. S. is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue and cannot but reconsider our proceeding to the DPRK-U. S. summit (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — North Korea’s official name).”
Gwan also specifically criticized the U. S. national security adviser John Bolton, who has called for North Korea to quickly give up its nuclear arsenal in a deal that mirrors Libya’s abandonment of its weapons of mass destruction.
North Korea’s chief negotiator issued a statement in the country’s KCNA news agency on Thursday, criticizing the South for participating in military drills with the U. S., as well as for allowing “human scum” to speak at its National Assembly.
While the statement did not identify the “human scum” by name, Thae Yong Ho, a former North Korean diplomat to Britain who defected to the South in 2016, held a press conference on Monday at the South Korean National Assembly for his publication of his memoir.
In his memoir, “Password from the Third Floor,” Ho describes the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as “impatient, impulsive and violent.”
Meanwhile, the statement said, “Unless the serious situation which led to the suspension of the north-south high-level talks is settled, it will never be easy to sit face to face again with the present regime of south Korea.”
Further adding, “On this opportunity, the present south Korean authorities have been clearly proven to be an ignorant and incompetent group devoid of the elementary sense of the present situation.”
Reports pointed out that KCNA deliberately uses lower-case for “north” and “south” to show that it only recognizes one undivided Korea.
In response, a South Korean presidential Blue House official said the South intends to more actively perform “the role of a mediator” between the United States and North Korea, but that goal has been cast into doubt by North’s recent comments.
Addressing the parliament in Seoul, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said on Thursday that North Korea and the United States had differences of views over how to achieve denuclearization.
The Yonhap News Agency quoted Kyung-wha as saying, “It is true that there are differences of opinion between the North and the United States on methods to accomplish denuclearization.”
In response to North Korea threatening to pull out of a historic planned summit with the U. S. President, Donald Trump acknowledged that it was unclear if the summit would go ahead.
Meanwhile, officials in the U. S. confirmed that Trump will host the South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the White House on May 22.
Officials in Seoul also confirmed that the Blue House intends to “sufficiently convey (to the United States) what we’ve discerned about North Korea’s position and attitude… and sufficiently convey the United States’ position to North Korea,” thereby helping to bridge the gap.
According to a report in Japan’s Asahi newspaper, the United States had reportedly demanded that North Korea ship some nuclear warheads, an intercontinental ballistic missile and other nuclear material overseas within six months.
The Asahi report cited several sources as saying that U. S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared to have told the North Korean leader when they met this month that Pyongyang might be removed from a list of state sponsors of terrorism if it complied.
The report further added that if North Korea agreed to complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation at the Singapore summit, Washington was considering giving guarantees for Kim’s regime.
On its part, North Korea has only expressed that it is willing to give up its nuclear arsenal if the United States withdraws its troops from South Korea and ends its “nuclear umbrella” alliance with Seoul.
