North Korea said it won’t agree to talks
with the U.S. and is now focused on its ability to destroy the
country with conventional, nuclear and cyber-warfare attacks.
Kim Jong Un’s regime accused the U.S. of “inching closer
to the stage of igniting a war of aggression” by stepping up
its sanctions, holding military drills with South Korea and
predicting the future collapse of the administration, the
official Korean Central News Agency said, citing a statement
from the National Defense Commission.
“Since the gangster-like U.S. imperialists are blaring
that they will ‘bring down’ the DPRK, oblivious of its poor
plight facing adverse fate, the army and people of the DPRK
cannot but officially notify the Obama administration of the
U.S.A. that the DPRK has neither need nor willingness to sit at
negotiating table,” KCNA said, using the acronym for the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The rejection of talks comes after a rush of diplomatic
activity by the U.S. and North Korea’s ally China to prod the
regime back to the table, potentially for bilateral talks and
eventually six-country negotiations that offered aid in return
for an end to its nuclear program. Kim raised expectations of
progress when he suggested in a Jan. 1 speech he’d be open to
meeting South Korea’s President Park Geun Hye.
First Trip
Russia’s Interfax news agency reported Jan. 28 that Kim
would make his first foreign trip in May since coming to power
three years ago, to attend celebrations for the 70th anniversary
of Russia’s victory in World War II. Park may also attend,
setting up what could be the first meeting between two Korean
leaders since 2007.
The statement focuses on the U.S. and doesn’t close the
door to individual talks with China or South Korea. China’s
Defense Minister Chang Wanquan is on a three day visit that
started Tuesday to South Korea, and meets his counterpart Han
Min-koo Wednesday to discuss issues including North Korea.
It also comes after North Korea said Feb. 1. the U.S.
rejected an invitation for a senior official to visit. The
regime asked Sung Kim, special representative for North Korea
policy, to Pyongyang during his trip to Asia last month, KCNA
said, but the talks didn’t occur because the U.S. refuses to
engage in dialogue unless North Korea first agrees to give up
its nuclear program.
Nuclear Arsenal
While Kim sits on a nuclear arsenal estimated at 12 bombs
and a standing army of 1.2 million, he faces United Nations
allegations of human rights abuses and tighter U.S. economic
sanctions after a cyber-attack on a Hollywood studio in November
blamed on North Korea.
“If the U.S. ignites a war of aggression against the DPRK
by conventional forces, it will fight it by conventional forces
of its style,” KCNA said in its latest report. “If the former
unleashes a nuclear war against the latter, it will counter it
through its own nuclear strikes, and if the former tries to
bring down the latter through a cyber warfare, it will react to
it with its own preeminent cyber warfare and will thus bring
earlier the final ruin of the U.S.”
To contact the editors responsible for this story: vcreater@gmail.com
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