North Korea on Saturday dismissed the idea of talks with Washington, a day after the Biden administration said it was open to diplomatic negotiations on denuclearization, The Guardian reports.
Diplomacy is a “spurious signboard” for the US to “cover up its hostile acts,” the North Korean foreign ministry said in a series of statements quoted by the North’s official KCNA news agency.
Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the department of US affairs of the foreign ministry, cited US President Joe Biden’s first policy speech to Congress this past Wednesday, in which Biden said nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran posed threats that would be addressed through “diplomacy and stern deterrence”.
Biden’s speech was “intolerable” and “a big blunder,” Kwon was quoted as having said.
“His statement clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy toward the DPRK as it had been done by the US for over half a century,” added Kwon.
Now that Biden’s policy has become clear, North Korea “will be compelled to press for corresponding measures, and with time the US will find itself in a very grave situation,” he concluded.
Former US President Donald Trump tried to reach an agreement with North Korea while in office. Kim and Trump met in Hanoi in 2019 for a summit that left nuclear talks at a standstill.
The pair had met three times since June 2018 but made little progress towards denuclearization.
The new Biden administration reached out to North Korea but the country did not respond to those overtures.
Top North Korean diplomat Choe Son Hui confirmed recently that the United States had recently tried to initiate contact with Pyongyang, but blasted the attempts as a “cheap trick” that would never be answered until Washington drops hostile policies.