Daily US Times: North Korea has hit out at US president Joe Biden as the Biden administration prepares to unveil its strategy for dealing with Pyongyang and its nuclear programme. The North accuses Biden administration of pursuing hostile policy over its nuclear goal
The North Korean foreign ministry said recent comments out of Washington showed President Biden was intent on maintaining a “hostile policy”.
Mr Biden said earlier this week North Korea’s nuclear programme a “serious threat” to global security.
The White House says president Biden plans to take a “calibrated” approach to North Korea.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that a review of US policy had been completed and suggested the president had learned from the experience of the previous four administrations who have tried, and failed, to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.
She said: “Our policy will not focus on achieving a grand bargain, nor will it rely on strategic patience,” adding that instead the US would pursue a “calibrated practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy” with the North while making “practical progress” on increasing security for the US and its allies.
The US is expected to host South Korea and Japan’s national security advisers for a discussion about the review soon.
In a statement carried on state media on Sunday, North Korea’s foreign ministry accuses President Joe Biden comments about its nuclear programme – in a speech to Congress this week – “intolerable” and a “big blunder”.
Kwon Jong-gun, of the Department of US Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, said: “His statement clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy towards the DPRK [North Korea] as it had been done by the US for over half a century.”
A separate North Korea’s foreign ministry statement said previous comments criticising North Korea’s human rights situation insulted the dignity of leader Kim Jong-un and showed the US is “girding itself up for an all-out showdown”.
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