North Korea Slams US: Your Policy Is 'a Pipe Dream'

North Korean foreign minister speaks at the UN
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 29, 2018 2:33 PM CDT
North Korea: We Need Trust, and We're Not Getting It
This combination of two file photos shows U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Wong Maye-E, File)

North Korea needs more trust in the US and their developing relationship before it will get rid of its nuclear weapons, Pyongyang's top diplomat said Saturday as an envoy from another of the international community's biggest worries—Syria—demanded that the US, France, and Turkey withdraw their troops from his civil-war-wracked country, the AP reports. More than three months after a June summit in Singapore between the US and North Korean leaders, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told world leaders at the UN General Assembly that the North doesn't see a "corresponding response" from the US to North Korea's early disarmament moves. Instead, he noted, the US is continuing sanctions aimed at keeping up pressure.

"The perception that sanctions can bring us on our knees is a pipe dream of the people who are ignorant of us," he said, adding that the continued sanctions are "deepening our mistrust" and deadlocking the current diplomacy. "Without any trust in the US, there will be no confidence in our national security, and under such circumstances there is no way we will unilaterally disarm ourselves first." He added that the North's commitment to disarming is "solid and firm," but that trust is crucial. Washington is wary of easing sanctions or agreeing to another of the North's priorities—a declaration ending the Korean War—without Pyongyang first making significant disarmament moves. Pompeo is planning to visit Pyongyang next month to prepare for a second Kim-Trump summit. Click for the full story.

(More North Korea stories.)

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