North Korea lambasted South Korean President Lee Jae Myung after he urged efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula during a visit to the US for talks with President Donald Trump, calling the idea a “naive dream.”
In a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday, North Korea said Lee is a “hypocrite seized with denuclearization paranoia” in reference to remarks Lee made at a forum in Washington in which he said he agreed with Trump to work together for denuclearization on the peninsula.
“He even insulted us as a ‘poor but fierce neighbour’ and then talked about the unreasonable ‘denuclearization,’” the commentary said. “We once again remind him of the fact that our position as a nuclear weapons state is an inevitable option that correctly reflects the hostile threat from outside.”
The statement stopped short of directly criticizing the US or Trump. During his first summit meeting with Lee on Monday, Trump spoke of Kim Jong Un in relatively friendly terms, saying he’d like to meet the North Korean leader this year. “I will say that Kim Jong Un and I had a very good relationship, as you remember, and still do,” Trump said, speaking alongside Lee in the Oval Office.
President Lee announced a series of measures aimed at lowering tensions with Pyongyang since taking office in June, but the Kim regime has dismissed the overtures while keeping the door slightly ajar for US talks. Lee said North Korea appears to be waiting for a sign from the US for dialogue to resume.
Trump met with the North Korean leader in person three times during his first term as president, but those interactions failed to convince Kim to curb the development of his nuclear weapons program. North Korea has since rebuffed the idea of sitting down with the US and has emerged as a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, supporting his war on Ukraine.
“The ‘denuclearization’ much touted by the ROK had already become extinct theoretically, practically and physically,” the commentary said, referring to the South by the acronym of its official name. “We remain unchanged in our stand not to abandon the nuclear weapons, the prestige and honor of the state.”
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
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