North Korea issues veiled warning to US
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a speech delivered Tuesday said he is ready for more talks with U.S. President Donald Trump but warned Washington not to test his patience with sanctions and pressure.
Kim, in a televised speech, said he’s ready to meet with Trump at any time to produce an outcome “welcomed by the international community.”
But he insisted North Korea would have no other option than to take a different path if the United States “continues to break its promises and misjudges the patience of our people by unilaterally demanding certain things and pushes ahead with sanctions and pressures.”
Kim did not elaborate on what he meant by “new path.”
Washington and Pyongyang are trying to arrange a second summit between Trump and Kim, who met in Singapore on June 12, 2018.
“If the United States takes sincere measures and corresponding action to our leading and pre-emptive efforts, then (U.S.-North Korea) relations will advance at a fast and excellent pace through the process of implementing (such) definite and groundbreaking measures,” Kim said.
“It is the unwavering position of our party and the republic’s government and my firm will that the two countries as declared in the June 12 joint statement … take steps to establish a permanent and stable peace regime and push toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” he said. “Therefore, we have already declared domestically and internationally and took various actions showing our commitment that we will no further create or test nuclear weapons and will not use or spread them.”
Nuclear talks between Washington Pyongyang have stalled in recent months as they struggle with the timing of North Korea’s disarmament and the removal of U.S.-led sanctions against the North.
The Trump administration has maintained it will not give ground on sanctions until North Korea gives up its nuclear weapons, but Pyongyang has called upon the U.S. to alleviate sanctions following its claims it is dismantling part of its nuclear program.
Weapons experts have said those measures are largely cosmetic and easily reversible.
It will be interesting to see how Trump responds to these veiled warnings.