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North Korea warns of nuclear crisis in threat to scrap talks
North Korea again threatened to cancel its planned summit with President Donald Trump next month, hardening its rhetoric by saying it was ready for a “nuclear-to-nuclear showdown” if the U.S. didn’t change its approach to the disarmament talks.
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his combination of file photos created on March 9, 2018 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the 5th Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea Cell Chairpersons in this photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) taken on December 23, 2017 and released on December 24, 2017 (L) and US President Donald Trump speaking to the press in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on February 9, 2018. (Agence France-Presse/Saul LOEB / AFP / KCNA via KNS )
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orth Korea again threatened to cancel its planned summit with President Donald Trump next month, hardening its rhetoric by saying it was ready for a “nuclear-to-nuclear showdown” if the US didn’t change its approach to the disarmament talks.
A top North Korean diplomat issued the warning Thursday in response to suggestions from the Trump administration that Kim Jong Un risked the fate of toppled Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi if he didn’t make a deal. The official specifically criticized remarks this week by Vice President Mike Pence, who was echoing earlier comments by Trump.
“I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the U.S. vice president,” said Choe Son Hui, vice-minister of foreign affairs, according to a statement released Thursday by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
“We will neither beg the US for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us,” Choe said. “Whether the U.S. will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States.”
Read also: N. Korea willing to denuclearise if security guaranteed
Trump has cast doubt as to whether the first-of-its-kind summit between a US President and North Korean leader will take place as planned on June 12 in Singapore. Differences have emerged between the two sides over the pace and scope of “denuclearization,” with the US advocating a rapid, unilateral approach while North Korea seeks a phased process of exchanges and concessions.
“Choe’s statement eventually raises the risk of the Singapore deal collapsing,” said Choi Kang, vice president at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. “What the North is aiming for with this statement, of course, is the maximum concession it can get from the US. And it’s the old tactic it has been using ahead of negotiations: Bluffing for concessions.”
North Korea’s warning came despite Trump administration efforts to soften its stance in advance of the summit, with the president saying Tuesday he wasn’t committed to an “all in one” approach. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also eased off US demands that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons immediately, saying instead that the Trump administration wants Kim’s regime to take “credible steps” toward that goal.
North Korea had threatened to cancel the summit last week, citing US National Security Adviser John Bolton’s remarks that the regime could follow a “Libya model” of arms control. While arms control advocates cite Qaddafi’s 2011 decision to give up his weapons of mass destruction program in exchange for an easing of sanctions as a success, North Korea views his subsequent death at the hands of NATO-backed rebels as a cautionary tale.
