North Korea says will resume US talks if demands fully met

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SEOUL, Jan 11, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – North Korea said Saturday it had received
Donald Trump’s letter wishing a happy birthday to leader Kim Jong Un, but
warned it will return to nuclear talks only when Washington fully accepts its
demands.

The US president and Kim have held three meetings since June 2018 but
negotiations have been largely deadlocked since the breakup of their Hanoi
summit last February.

Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s foreign ministry adviser, said Trump’s
congratulatory letter had arrived in the isolated, nuclear-armed state
directly from the US.

“As acknowledged by the world, it is true that the personal relations
between (Kim Jong Un) and President Trump are not bad,” he said in a
statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

However, it would be “absent-minded” to expect Pyongyang to resume
dialogue because of that warm personal relationship, the statement continued.

“We have been deceived by the US, being caught in the dialogue with it for
over one year and a half, and that was the lost time for us,” the adviser
said.

On the gridlocked nuclear talks, he said that reopening dialogue would
only be possible in the case of Washington’s “absolute agreement” on the
issues raised by North Korea.

But the senior official was sceptical that the US would accept these
demands, saying: “we know well that the US is neither ready nor able to do
so. We know… the way we should go and will go on our way.”

At a meeting of his ruling party in December, Kim Jong Un declared an end
to North Korea’s moratoriums on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic
missile tests.

The leader also threatened a demonstration of a “new strategic weapon”
soon.

Saturday’s statement on KCNA came a day after South Korea’s presidential
security adviser said Trump had asked Seoul to deliver his birthday message
for Kim. North Korea has never officially confirmed Kim’s age or date of
birth — but on January 8, 2014, basketball star Dennis Rodman sang him
“Happy Birthday” before an exhibition match in Pyongyang.

The adviser warned South Korean authorities against trying to act as a
mediator between the US and the North.

“The South Korean authorities had better not dream a fabulous dream that
we would return to the dialogue with thankful feelings for the birthday
greetings like someone,” he said.