Kim Yo Jong says that denuclearization is “not possible at this stage”. (File)
Seoul:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister said on Friday that there was “no need” for another summit with the United States unless Washington offers a “decisive change” in approach .
Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump first met in Singapore two years ago, but discussions on Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal have stalled since the collapse of their Hanoi summit in early 2019 on what the North would be ready to give up in exchange for a reduction in sanctions.
Trump said this week that he would “certainly” meet Kim again “if I thought it was going to be helpful,” after speculating that he could pursue another summit if it would improve his chances of being re-elected in November.
But in a statement issued by the official Korean central news agency, Kim Yo Jong – who established himself as one of his brother’s closest advisers – said: “There is no need for us to sit down with the United States right now. “
If a summit were to take place, she said, “it is all too obvious that it will only be used as a boring boast from someone’s pride.”
Denuclearization, she added, was “not possible at this stage” and could only occur in parallel with “simultaneous major irreversible stages” on the other side – which, she stressed, only did no reference to the lifting of sanctions.
She hasn’t gone into detail, but Washington is stationing 28,500 soldiers in the south to defend it from its neighbor, and has a range of military assets in Japan and the wider Pacific region.
Pyongyang insists that it needs its nuclear arsenal to deter a possible American invasion.
Kim Yo Jong’s statement was just her personal opinion, she said, but the long statement seemed intended to send several messages.
She said that she had watched the July 4 celebrations on Independence Day in the United States on television and that her brother had obtained permission “to obtain, personally, for sure, the DVD of the celebrations … ‘to come up”.
Her brother had “entrusted the transmission of my wishes to President Trump that he would certainly achieve great success in his work,” she added.
Kim Jong Un declared in December the end of the moratoria on nuclear and ballistic missile testing, and Pyongyang has repeatedly said that he has no plans to continue talks unless Washington abandons what he describes as a “hostile” policy towards the North.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
