North Korea will never completely give up its nuclear weapons, a top defector said ahead of leader Kim Jong-un’s landmark summit with US President Donald Trump next month.
The current whirlwind of diplomacy and negotiations will not end with “a sincere and complete disarmament,” but with “a reduced North Korean nuclear threat,” said Thae Yong-ho, who fled his post as the North’s deputy ambassador to Britain in August 2016.
“In the end, North Korea will remain ‘a nuclear power packaged as a non-nuclear state,’” Thae told the South’s Newsis news agency.
Photo: AFP
His remarks came ahead of a summit between Kim and Trump in Singapore on June 12 where North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes are expected to dominate the agenda.
North and South Korea affirmed their commitment to the goal of denuclearization of the peninsula at a summit last month, and Pyongyang announced at the weekend it would destroy its only known nuclear test site next week. However, it has not made public what concessions it is offering.
Washington is seeking the “complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization” (CVID) of the North, adding that verification will be key.
Pyongyang has said it does not need nuclear weapons if the security of its regime is guaranteed.
However, Thae, one of the highest ranking officials to have defected in recent years, said: “North Korea will argue that the process of nuclear disarmament will lead to the collapse of North Korea and oppose CVID.”
The North wanted to ensure Kim’s “absolute power” and its model of hereditary succession, he added, and would oppose intrusive inspections as they “would be viewed as a process of breaking down Kim Jong Un’s absolute power in front of the eyes of ordinary North Koreans and elites”.
At a party meeting last month when Kim proclaimed the development of the North’s nuclear force complete and promised no more nuclear or missile tests, he called its arsenal “a powerful treasured sword for defending peace.”
“Giving it up soon after Kim Jong-un himself labeled it the ‘treasured sword for defending peace’ and a firm guarantee for the future? It can never happen,” Thae said.
In his memoir that hit shelves yesterday, Thae added: “More people should realize that North Korea is desperately clinging to its nuclear program more than anything.”
Tensions on and around the peninsula had been mounting for years as Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs saw it subjected to multiple rounds of increasingly strict sanctions by the UN Security Council, the US, the EU, South Korea and others.
Trump last year threatened the North with “fire and fury.”
North Korea’s sudden change in attitude was probably driven by the mounting international sanctions imposed over its weapons programs that had begun to take a toll on the livelihoods of ordinary citizens, Thae said.
As of last year the UN Security Council sanctions included measures on sectors such as coal, fish, textiles and overseas workers.
“North Korea did not foresee the destructive power of these sanctions,” Thae told the interview. “These sanctions are threatening the livelihoods of millions of North Koreans at the root.”
However, Pyongyang had a long history of making overtures that ultimately came to nothing, he warned.
“North Korea’s diplomacy has always been a repeat of hardline and appeasement,” Thae said.
“It is North Korea’s diplomatic tactic to push the situation to extreme confrontation and suddenly send peace gestures,” he said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese