Seoul: North Korea accused the U.S. of breaking promises it made at a historic summit two years ago, saying the Trump administration had turned dreams for peace into “a dark nightmare” and diminished hopes for a denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon said in a message to mark the second anniversary of the then- unprecedented June 12, 2018 meeting between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump that the U.S. had broken its word, adding that North Korea saw no benefit in engaging with Washington.
“Nothing is more hypocritical than an empty promise,” Ri was quoted as saying in a Friday report from the official Korean Central News Agency. He added the U.S. has shown over the past two years that it’s aiming for the “isolation and suffocation” of North Korea.
North Korea’s ultimate goal is to build up a more “reliable force” to achieve a full deterrence capability from “the long-term military threats” from Washington, Ri said.
No Agreement
The first summit resulted in a bare-bones declaration that contained four main items: To normalize ties between the U.S. and North Korea, formally end the 1950-53 Korean War, repatriate U.S. war remains and — crucially — “to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
Even though Trump and Kim have met twice since then, the two sides remain far apart and still have not come to agreement on what they mean by denuclearization. Trump has insisted that Kim give up nuclear weapons before easing up on sanctions squeezing the state’s anemic economy, while North Korea has called for steps it takes toward disarmament to be met with rewards.
Meanwhile, North Korea has ramped up tensions with South Korea. This week, it cut off communication links set up two years ago with its neighbor, which it accused of allowing hostile acts by failing to prevent activists from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border by using balloons.- Bloomberg
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