The US is still hopeful about a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, but US President Donald Trump is prepared for a tough negotiation process, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said yesterday.
North Korea yesterday threw the June 12 summit into doubt, threatening weeks of diplomatic progress by saying it might reconsider if Washington insists it unilaterally gives up its nuclear weapons.
“We’re still hopeful that the meeting will take place and we’ll continue down that path, but at the same time we’ve been prepared that these could be tough negotiations,” Huckabee Sanders said in an interview with Fox News.
Photo: EPA
“The president is ready if the meeting takes place. If it doesn’t, we’ll continue the maximum pressure campaign that’s been ongoing,” she said.
Huckabee Sanders said the comments from North Korea were “not something that is out of the ordinary in these types of operations.”
“The president’s fully prepared and fully ready to carry on in these conversations both leading up to and if the meeting takes place,” she said. “He’ll be there and he’ll be ready.”
In an angrily worded statement, Pyongyang insisted it would abandon the high-level meeting if Washington sought to pressure it into giving up its atomic arsenal.
“If the US is trying to drive us into a corner to force our unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in such dialogue,” North Korean First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Kye-gwan said in a statement carried by state media.
In that case, Pyongyang would have to “reconsider” its participation at next month’s summit in Singapore, he said.
The North’s weaponry is expected to be top of the agenda at the historic talks, but Pyongyang has long insisted it needs the weapons to defend itself against invasion by the US.
The vice minister tore into Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton for drawing parallels between North Korea and Libya.
After giving up his atomic program, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi was killed in an uprising backed by NATO bombing.
“It is absolutely absurd to dare compare the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea], a nuclear weapon state, to Libya, which had been at the initial stage of nuclear development,” he said.
“We shed light on the quality of Bolton already in the past, and we do not hide our feeling of repugnance towards him,” he said.
Washington is pressing for its complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization, but so far, the North has not given any public indication of what concessions it is offering, beyond euphemistic commitments to denuclearization of the “Korean Peninsula.”
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
RSS