Biden administration says ‘complete denuclearisation’ remains its goal on North Korea
- National security adviser spoke hours after North Korea labelled Biden’s recent comment that the country’s nuclear programme is a threat as ‘intolerable’
- North Korea also warned Seoul for allowing a defector group to send 500,000 propaganda leaflets on the Kim Jong-un regime over the border by balloon
National security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke hours after North Korea labelled Biden’s recent comment that the country’s nuclear programme is a threat as “intolerable”.
“We believe that rather than all-for-all or nothing-for-nothing, a more calibrated, practical, measured approach stands the best chance of actually moving the ball down the field” toward reducing North Korea’s nuclear programme, Sullivan said on ABC’s This Week. “We’re prepared to engage in diplomacy towards that ultimate objective.”
On Sunday, a North Korean official said Biden “made a big blunder” in comments on Pyongyang’s nuclear programme.
“On Iran and North Korea – nuclear programmes that present serious threats to American security and the security of the world – we’re going to be working closely with our allies to address the threats posed by both of these countries through diplomacy, as well as stern deterrence,” Biden said in an address to a joint session of Congress on April 28.
“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,” Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of US Affairs at North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, said in a statement.
“This becomes an evident sign that it is girding itself up for an all-out showdown,” North Korea’s foreign ministry said. “We have warned the US sufficiently enough to understand that it will get hurt if it provokes us.”
“We regard the manoeuvres committed by the human wastes in the South as a serious provocation against our state,” Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said in the statement, adding that Pyongyang will “look into corresponding action”.
In June Kim Yo-jong warned that South Korea would pay a “dear price” if it continued to allow “mongrel dogs” to send the leaflets. Soon after that, North Korea blew up a US$15 million joint liaison office built by South Korea north of the border that served as a de facto embassy – destroying one of the most tangible symbols of Moon’s rapprochement efforts.
Seoul opposes any actions that “cause tension” on the Korean peninsula and will “continue to endeavour to establish peace”, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and his US counterpart Antony Blinken held talks on Monday in London to discuss issues related to China and North Korea, following up on their leaders’ summit last month.
The second in-person meeting between Motegi and the US secretary of state came ahead of a three-day meeting of the G7 foreign ministers, where China and North Korea are also seen high on the agenda.
Additional reporting by Kyodo
