Seoul, South Korea:
The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un mentioned Tuesday that Washington had “wrong” expectations for dialogue with Pyongyang and was facing “greater disappointment”, state media reported.
Kim Yo Jong’s comments came just after US national safety advisor Jake Sullivan described her brother’s 1st reaction to Washington’s current critique of its strategy to the North as an “interesting signal”.
The Biden administration has promised a sensible, calibrated strategy, like diplomatic efforts, to persuade the impoverished North to give up its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
In response, the North’s leader Kim last week mentioned Pyongyang will have to prepare for each dialogue and confrontation.
Washington thought of his comments as intriguing, Sullivan told ABC News, adding the administration “will wait to see whether they are followed up with any kind of more direct communication to us about a potential path forward”.
But Kim Yo Jong — a important adviser to her brother — appeared to dismiss the prospects for an early resumption of negotiations.
The US seemed to be looking for “comfort for itself”, she mentioned in a statement reported by Pyongyang’s official KCNA news agency.
It harboured expectations “the wrong way”, she added, which would “plunge them into a greater disappointment”.
Kim’s comments came with the major US diplomat in charge of North Korea negotiations on a 5-day stop by to Seoul, exactly where he mentioned Monday that Washington was prepared to meet with Pyongyang “anywhere, anytime, without preconditions”.
Just hours ahead of Pyongyang released Kim’s statement, US envoy Sung Kim met with the South’s unification minister, reiterating Washington’s willingness to speak with the North.
The North at the weekend admitted it was tackling a meals crisis, sounding the alarm in a nation with a moribund agricultural sector that has extended struggled to feed itself.
It is now below self-imposed isolation to safeguard itself against the coronavirus pandemic, and as a outcome trade with Beijing — its financial lifeline — has slowed to a trickle though all international help work faces tight restrictions.
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