North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his government to be prepared for both dialogue and confrontation with the administration of US President Joe Biden — but more for confrontation, state media reported yesterday, following calls by the US and others for North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and return to talks.
The statement indicates that Kim will likely push to strengthen his nuclear arsenal and increase pressure on Washington to give up what North Korea considers a hostile US policy, although he would also prepare for talks to resume, experts say.
During an ongoing meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee on Thursday, Kim analyzed in detail policy tendencies of the Biden administration and clarified unspecified steps to be taken in relations with Washington, the Korean Central News Agency said.
Photo: AFP / KCNA VIA KNS
Kim “stressed the need to get prepared for both dialogue and confrontation, especially to get fully prepared for confrontation in order to protect the dignity of our state and its interests for independent development, and to reliably guarantee the peaceful environment and the security of our state,” the report said.
In 2018 and 2019, Kim held a series of summits with then-US president Donald Trump to discuss his advancing nuclear arsenal, but their negotiations fell apart after Trump rejected Kim’s calls for extensive sanctions relief in return for a partial surrender of his nuclear capability.
The Biden administration has worked to formulate a new approach on North Korea’s nuclear program that it describes as “calibrated and practical.”
Details of his North Korea policy have not been publicized, but US officials have suggested that Biden would seek a middle ground between Trump’s direct meetings with Kim and former US president Barack Obama’s “strategic patience” to curb the nuclear program.
Earlier this week, G7 leaders issued a statement calling for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and “the verifiable and irreversible abandonment” of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
They also called on North Korea to engage and resume dialogue.
US Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim is to visit Seoul tomorrow for a trilateral meeting with South Korean and Japanese officials.
His travel emphasizes the importance of the trilateral cooperation in working toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the US Department of State said.
Kim Jong-un has recently threatened to enlarge his nuclear arsenal and build high-tech weapons targeting the US mainland if Washington refused to abandon its hostile policy on North Korea.
In March, the North Korean military performed its first short-range ballistic missile tests in a year. However, North Korea maintains a moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests — an indication that Kim Jong-un still wants to keep prospects for diplomacy alive.
Analyst Cheong Seong-chang at South Korea’s private Sejong Institute said that North Korea would likely return to talks, but it would not accept a call for immediate, complete denuclearization.
North Korea might accede to a proposal to freeze its atomic program and partially reduce its nuclear arsenal in phased steps if the Biden administration relaxes sanctions and suspend its regular military drills with South Korea, he said.
South Korean Ministry of Unification spokesman Cha Duck-chul said that it is closely monitoring North Korea’s ongoing political meeting and that it wants to re-emphasize the best way to achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula is through dialogue.
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