North Korea has lashed out at US sanctions as the regime again reverts to tough talk just days ahead of a crucial summit in Pyongyang.
Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state, is on Sunday due to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in a bid to restart denuclearisation talks, which have made little progress this year despite a series of high-profile summits among the leaders of Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington.
The visit to Pyongyang by the top US diplomat comes just weeks after Mr Kim renewed his commitment to nuclear disarmament and pledged concrete concessions during a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Since then, however, North Korea has once again returned to rhetorical broadsides, which highlight the gulf between Mr Kim’s effusive public attitude — including gushing letters sent to US President Donald Trump — and the hard line of his official government statements.
On Thursday, the North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun praised the dictator and slammed the US for its continued enforcement of international sanctions that have left the regime isolated from global trade and finance.
“The US is coming up with a thorny stick of maintaining or intensifying sanctions. How senseless and rude they are!” the state-run newspaper said. “Sanctions are a major source of cause for our growing mistrust with the US.”
The comments come days after Ri Yong Ho, North Korea’s foreign minister, blamed the US’s “coercive” sanctions policy for the diplomatic deadlock and said the nation would never denuclearise “without trust” in Washington.
The remarks are likely to contribute to concerns in the US that North Korea is manipulating Mr Trump by dragging out talks.
From flashpoint to peace park: Koreas eye new future for the DMZ
Many analysts do not believe Mr Kim is sincere in any of his pledges to denuclearise. They point to the regime’s development of advanced weapons since a landmark summit with the US in June as evidence.
“The creation of the peace mood on the Korean peninsula due to Mr Moon’s summits with Mr Kim have neutralised the US’s tough negotiating strategy. North Korea is now moving ahead with denuclearisation talks on their own terms,” said Kim Jin-moo, a professor of international relations at Sookmyung Women’s University.
“North Korea seeks nuclear state status just like Pakistan and will drag its feet to exhaust the US.”
During his meeting with Mr Moon last month, the North Korean leader doubled down on earlier pledges to denuclearise, vowing to permanently dismantle a key missile testing site and allow the process to be monitored by international inspectors.
He also said he would close North Korea’s sprawling Yongbyon nuclear complex if the US took “corresponding measures”.
However, he did not specify what those measures could be.
In addition to sanctions relief, North Korea has repeatedly demanded the US make a declaration ending the officially unfinished Korean war — a statement that would in theory provide the regime with a form of security guarantee.
The tough rhetoric from Pyongyang on Thursday contrasted with the positive overtures struck by Mr Pompeo, who said he was “optimistic” that this weekend’s meeting would result in “better understandings, deeper progress and a plan forward”.
He brushed off concerns about North Korea’s tough tone.
The summit in Pyongyang would be Mr Pompeo’s first since a diplomatic disaster in July when the regime accused Washington of “robber-like behaviour” in its demands for “unilateral enuclearisation”.
