North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may break off denuclearisation talks with the US and resume missile and nuclear testing, a senior official says.
Vice Foreign Minister Choe Sun-hui told foreign diplomats the US threw away “a golden opportunity” at a recent summit between President Trump and Mr Kim.
North Korea had offered to dismantle its main Yongbyon nuclear complex.
But talks collapsed after Mr Trump refused to lift sanctions unless North Korea destroyed all its nuclear sites.
Mr Kim is set to make an official announcement on his position regarding future talks with the US soon, Ms Choe said in Pyongyang.
“We have no intention to yield to the US demands in any form, nor are we willing to engage in negotiations of this kind,” she told reporters in North Korea, Russia’s state Tass news agency reported.
She accused the US of taking a “gangster-like” stance, Tass reported.
Ms Choe said that North Korea’s demand during the recent summit was for five key economic sanctions to be lifted, not all sanctions, as Mr Trump said after talks broke down.
“What is clear is that the US has thrown away a golden opportunity this time,” she said. “I’m not sure why the US came out with this different description. We never asked for the removal of sanctions in their entirety.”
Mr Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo clearly stated after talks in February that North Korean officials had asked for full sanctions relief.
“It was all about the sanctions. They wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn’t do that,” Mr Trump told reporters. “Sometimes you have to walk and this was one of those times,” he said.
In Washington this week, the US special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, said that diplomacy was “still very much alive”, though he did not say if there had been any negotiations since the summit, or outline any plans for further talks.
The two leaders first met in Singapore last year, in an unprecedented summit between a US sitting president and a North Korean leader. Their second meeting was in Hanoi in February.
At a news conference after the Hanoi summit, Mr Trump said no plans had been made for a third summit, but he expressed optimism about a “good outcome” in the future.
So does this mean a return to “fire and fury”? Not quite. North Korea’s tactic might be to hope this will initiate a reaction from the US. Pyongyang is aware that Donald Trump has boasted about his ability to get Mr Kim to stop firing missiles and testing nuclear missiles.
“As long as there’s no testing,” said Mr Trump, “I’m in no rush.”
After the two leaders failed to secure a deal in Hanoi, and with economic sanctions still in place, North Korea might be trying to hurry the US president along and get him back to the table with a better deal.
It is worth noting Choe Sun-hui still praised the personal relationship between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. So the door to diplomacy is still open. Instead she blamed Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton for hardening the US position.
North Korea also has hardliners of its own, who may perceive Kim Jong-un’s 120-hour train trip to Hanoi and back as a failure. This announcement lets them know, along with the Trump administration, that Mr Kim is standing firm.
