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North Korea dismisses drills delay and Swedish efforts
SEOUL, Nov 19, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The United States must end its joint
exercises with Seoul “once and for all” to facilitate dialogue with
Pyongyang, North Korea said Tuesday, just days after the allies postponed
planned drills.
The US and South Korea said Sunday they would delay annual joint aerial
exercises slated for this month in an act of “goodwill” after months of
deadlocked nuclear talks.
Pyongyang has long protested the joint drills, which it condemns as
preparations for invasion, and Seoul and Washington last year cancelled
several training sessions in the wake of the Singapore summit between
President Donald Trump and the North’s leader Kim Jong Un.
But Kim Yong Chol, a senior North Korean official who formerly led talks
with the US, said the weekend postponement was irrelevant.
“We demand that the US quit the drill or stop it once and for all,” Kim
said in a statement carried by the KCNA news agency.
“The suspension of the drill does not mean ensuring peace and security on
the Korean peninsula and is not helpful to the diplomatic efforts,” he added.
The North had “no intention” to sit down with the “tricky US” and would
not return to talks “before the complete and irrevocable withdrawal of its
hostile policy”.
“From now on, the DPRK will get due compensation for every administrative
achievement the US president has talked too much about for over a year,” Kim
added, referring to the North by its official name.
Trump has repeatedly pointed to North Korea’s moratorium on nuclear tests
and intercontinental ballistic missile launches as foreign policy successes
for him.
But negotiations have been gridlocked since the Hanoi summit in February
broke up in disagreement over sanctions relief, while October’s working-level
talks rapidly broke down in Sweden.
Pyongyang also criticised Stockholm on Tuesday, saying it had passed on a
US suggestion of meeting again in December.
The US used the intermediary “not to give impression that it fawns on the
DPRK”, the North’s chief nuclear negotiator Kim Myong Gil told KCNA.
But now that Pyongyang and Washington know each other’s position,
Stockholm “no longer needs to work for the DPRK-US dialogue”, he said.
“If the Swedish side behaves like a back-seat driver, it might be regarded
as unreasonable,” he added. “The Swedish side would be well-advised to
properly understand the situation and behave itself.”
Tuesday’s statements were the latest in a series of increasingly assertive
comments from the North as its end-of-year deadline for the US to come up
with a fresh offer approaches, and it has also carried out multiple weapons
tests in recent weeks.
Trump hinted at the prospect of a fourth meeting with Kim in a tweet at
the weekend, only to be dismissed by the North, which said it had no interest
in summits “that bring nothing to us”.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1434 hrs