North Korea has no desire to engage in dialogue with the United States, Kim Yo Jong, a senior Workers' Party of Korea official and sister of the country's leader, said on Monday
TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th July, 2023) North Korea has no desire to engage in dialogue with the United States, Kim Yo Jong, a senior Workers' Party of Korea official and sister of the country's leader, said on Monday.
"The US might be well aware why the DPRK has no interest in the dialogue with it," Kim said in a statement published by the state-run Korean Central news Agency, adding that "We can predict the possibility that the US may play such old trick as a temporary halt to the US-South Korea joint military drills, to which its preceding president was committed a few years ago, or merely please someone with such reversible things as reduced combined military drills and halt to the deployment of strategic assets."
Kim noted that it would be a "daydream" for the US to believe that it could achieve North Korea's disarmament through these and other "reversible" methods, such as sanctions.
She warned that the expansion of the US military presence in the region was only alienating North Korea from negotiations.
"The DPRK is ready for resolutely countering any acts of violating its sovereignty and territorial integrity, threatening the wellbeing of its people and destroying peace and stability of the Korean peninsula. The US should stop its foolish act of provoking the DPRK even by imperiling its security," Kim said.
On July 12, Pyongyang test-fired the Hwasong-18, its new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). It is estimated to have flown over 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) at a maximum altitude of over 6,000 kilometers on a lofted trajectory. Had the trajectory been standard, the missile could have hit any target on US territory. The US and South Korea responded by imposing new sanctions on North Korea the following day.
