North Korea says may reconsider steps to build trust with US: KCNA
Published Oct 10, 2019 05:45 pm
By Reuters
SEOUL - North Korea said on Thursday its patience has limits and it could reverse steps to build trust with the United States, as it criticized a UN Security Council call for it to cease its weapons programs and denounced a US missile test.
Residents hold US and North Korean flags while they wait for motorcade of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un en route to the Metropole Hotel for the second US-North Korea summit in Hanoi, Vietnam February 28, 2019. (REUTERS/Kham/File Photo/MANILA BULLETIN)
The five European members of the UN Security Council met on Tuesday to urge North Korea “to take concrete steps” towards giving up its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.
That call came days after North Korea said it test-fired a new submarine-launched ballistic missile, in what was the most provocative action by North Korea since it resumed dialogue with the United States in 2018.
North Korea, as part of its efforts to sustain that dialogue, which has included three meetings between its leader, Kim Jong Un, and US President Donald Trump, has stopped testing nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
But North Korea’s foreign ministry spokesman, in a statement reported by its state KCNA news agency, raised questions about that restraint.
“There is a limit to our patience and there is no law that anything we have refrained from so far will continue indefinitely,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman also denounced what he said was the UN Security Council’s unfair taking up of the issue of North Korea’s self-defense.
“The fact ... is prompting us to reconsider the crucial pre-emptive steps we have taken to build trust with the US.”
The spokesman did not elaborate on what pre-emptive steps he was referring to, but North Korean state media and officials have referred to the halting of nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests, and the return of remains of US soldiers killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War, as good-faith gestures to the United States, which it says have not been reciprocated.
The North Korean spokesman also referred to a US Air Force test of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile this month.
The US test was “clearly carried out in order to pressure us”, the North Korean spokesman said.
Residents hold US and North Korean flags while they wait for motorcade of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un en route to the Metropole Hotel for the second US-North Korea summit in Hanoi, Vietnam February 28, 2019. (REUTERS/Kham/File Photo/MANILA BULLETIN)
The five European members of the UN Security Council met on Tuesday to urge North Korea “to take concrete steps” towards giving up its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.
That call came days after North Korea said it test-fired a new submarine-launched ballistic missile, in what was the most provocative action by North Korea since it resumed dialogue with the United States in 2018.
North Korea, as part of its efforts to sustain that dialogue, which has included three meetings between its leader, Kim Jong Un, and US President Donald Trump, has stopped testing nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
But North Korea’s foreign ministry spokesman, in a statement reported by its state KCNA news agency, raised questions about that restraint.
“There is a limit to our patience and there is no law that anything we have refrained from so far will continue indefinitely,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman also denounced what he said was the UN Security Council’s unfair taking up of the issue of North Korea’s self-defense.
“The fact ... is prompting us to reconsider the crucial pre-emptive steps we have taken to build trust with the US.”
The spokesman did not elaborate on what pre-emptive steps he was referring to, but North Korean state media and officials have referred to the halting of nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests, and the return of remains of US soldiers killed in the 1950-1953 Korean War, as good-faith gestures to the United States, which it says have not been reciprocated.
The North Korean spokesman also referred to a US Air Force test of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile this month.
The US test was “clearly carried out in order to pressure us”, the North Korean spokesman said.