On Second Thought: North Korea Cools On Summit With US Over Disarmament

(FILES) This combination of file photos created on March 9, 2018 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the 5th Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea Cell Chairpersons in this photo from North Korea's offic... (FILES) This combination of file photos created on March 9, 2018 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the 5th Conference of the Workers' Party of Korea Cell Chairpersons in this photo from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) taken on December 23, 2017 and released on December 24, 2017 (L) and US President Donald Trump speaking to the press in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on February 9, 2018. US President Donald Trump agreed on March 8, 2018 to a historic first meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a stunning development in America's high-stakes nuclear standoff with North Korea / AFP PHOTO / KCNA via KNS AND AFP PHOTO / - AND Saul LOEB / South Korea OUT / REPUBLIC OF KOREA OUT ---EDITORS NOTE--- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO/KCNA VIA KNS" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS THIS PICTURE WAS MADE AVAILABLE BY A THIRD PARTY. AFP CAN NOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, LOCATION, DATE AND CONTENT OF THIS IMAGE. THIS PHOTO IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY AFP. / (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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North Korea’s first vice foreign minister says the country has no interest in a summit with the United States if it’s going to be a “one-sided” affair where it’s pressured to give up its nukes.

The statement by Kim Kye Gwan on Wednesday came hours after the North abruptly canceled a high-level meeting with South Korea and threatened to do the same with a planned summit between leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump next month.

Kim Kye Gwan criticized recent comments by Trump’s top security adviser John Bolton and other U.S. officials who have been talking about how the North should follow the “Libyan model” of nuclear disarmament and provide a “complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement.”

He also criticized other U.S. comments that the North should completely abandon not only its nukes and missiles but also its biological and chemical weapons.

Kim says: “We will appropriately respond to the Trump administration if it approaches the North Korea-U.S. summit meeting with a truthful intent to improve relations.”

He adds: “But we are no longer interested in a negotiation that will be all about driving us into a corner and making a one-sided demand for us to give up our nukes and this would force us to reconsider whether we would accept the North Korea-U.S. summit meeting.”

Some analysts say bringing up Libya, which dismantled its rudimentary nuclear program in the 2000s in exchange for sanctions relief, would risk derailing any progress in negotiations with the North

Kim Jong Un took power weeks after former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s gruesome death at the hands of rebel forces amid a popular uprising in October 2011. The North has frequently used Gadhafi’s death to justify its own nuclear development in the face of perceived U.S. threats.

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  1. Avatar for kenga kenga says:

    Top. Men.

  2. Avatar for ghost ghost says:

    Yep, they say no need for a summit if what we want is denuclearization, since they will never do that. Which should have been obvious.

    You been played, Donnie (despite your assertion that “we won’t be played”). Or you been lying about them being willing to agree to complete denuclearization. Or both.

    Trolling at its finest by the North Koreans.

  3. Gee, I can’t wait until our stable genius president makes his shrewd counter-movel. Because you know Trump’s playing 12-dimensional stable genius chess, while the rest of us marvel at his greatness.

    My guess is Trump will call Kim"fat" and “LittleRocket Man”. Genius!

  4. Everyone is laughing at you, Donnie!

  5. Any truth to the rumor that Kim’s only demand is that Trump submit to questioning by the Mueller grand jury?

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