North Korea dismisses 'spurious' US diplomacy
May 2, 2021
North Korea signaled rejecting the idea of talks with the United States, describing Washington's diplomacy as "spurious," state media reported on Sunday.
The remarks came after US President Joe Biden's administration announced it was open to diplomacy over North Korea's denuclearization.
Diplomacy was a "spurious signboard" for Washington to "cover up its hostile acts," North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement published by the KCNA news agency.
Biden made a 'big blunder'
Pyongyang warned Biden that he had made a "big blunder" with his "outdated" stance towards North Korea's nuclear arsenal.
The Foreign Ministry also accused the US president of insulting North Korea's leadership by slamming its human rights record.
In a separate statement, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Washington's criticism showed that the US was "girding itself up for an all-out showdown" with Pyongyang.
North Korea "will be compelled to press for corresponding measures, and with time the US will find itself in a very grave situation," the statement read.
However, Pyongyang's officials did not specify what steps they would take.
What did Washington say?
Sunday's remarks were in response to Biden's address to Congress last week, where he called North Korea and Iran's nuclear programs "a serious threat to America's security and world security,'' vowing to work with allies to address those issues through diplomacy.
The White House said Friday it had completed a review of US policy toward North Korea, saying that Biden was seeking a different approach than his predecessors.
"Our goal remains the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Biden's press secretary, Jen Psaki, told reporters.
In January, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un threatened to expand his nuclear arsenal and build more high-tech weapons targeting the US mainland.
Kim had also vowed to improve North Korea's international ties, but said the fate of Pyongyang's relations with Washington would depend on whether the latter abandons its "hostile" policies.
fb/aw (AFP, AP, Reuters)