(Seoul) The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Monday called the proposed talks with the United States over Pyongyang’s nuclear program a “daydream” on the eve of a meeting between Washington and Seoul on nuclear deterrence.
“It is a daydream of the United States to think that it can stop the progress of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and even achieve irreversible disarmament through the suspension of joint military maneuvers, a pause in the deployment of strategic forces and reversible sanctions relief,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement released by KCNA.
The best way to secure peace is to counter the United States with force “rather than seize the outstretched hand of American gangsters”, she added.
North Korea said on Thursday that it had successfully tested, under the supervision of its leader Kim Jong-un himself, its new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
The missile, a Hwasong-18 believed to have been used only once before, in April, traveled 1,001 km at a maximum altitude of 6,648 km before crashing into the East Sea, assured the official KCNA news agency, using the Korean name for the Sea of Japan.
The North Korean number one described last year as “irreversible” the status of nuclear power of his country and called for an increased development of armaments, in particular of tactical nuclear weapons.
Seoul and Washington have increased their military cooperation in response to these missile tests, and organized joint maneuvers with latest generation fighters and strategic forces. These annual maneuvers are to be repeated next month.
The two countries are due to hold the first meeting of a Nuclear Consultative Group in Seoul on Tuesday, intended, according to the North Korean presidency, to “increase nuclear deterrence against North Korea”.
Washington, however, reiterated its offer of negotiations on Sunday.