The Daily Beast
North Korea says it is fantasizing about endless calls and emails from the Biden team
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKIForget on negotiations on anything between the US and North Korea. That was Pyongyang’s last message amid fears that the North could soon test a long-range missile capable of sending a nuclear warhead anywhere in the United States. North Korea has dashed the Biden government’s hopes for a new dialogue with a Thursday by proclaiming absolutely no contact “may be possible, unless the United States reverses its hostile policy towards the DPRK [the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea]. “The statement, on behalf of Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s first deputy foreign minister, said that the United States” has tried to contact us since mid-February via various routes, including New York “- a reference to the North’s mission at the UN, often the easiest channel to get in touch. The Americans, she said, “asked to contact us by sending e-mails and phone messages” – “even the night before the joint military exercise” with the South Koreans “begging us to respond to his request through a third country. “It was all in vain. Choe’s unmistakable response, conveyed in English by the Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang, was filled with frighteningly similar contempt to that of Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, mocking from South Korea’s acquiescence to annual exercises. Among them, his statements appeared as a calculated double blow – first on Tuesday by Yo Jong directed mainly at South Korea, then by Choe, the second most important woman in the North American hierarchy. Korean, at USKim Jong Un’s Kid Sister Warns Biden Not to ‘stink’ with South Korean exercise exercises “We don’t think there is a need to respond to the US delay time trick again However, ”said Choe. “We will disregard such an attempt by the United States in the future as well.” Choe accused the White House and the state, treasury and justice departments of having “launched a wave of rhetoric” about “additional sanctions and diplomatic incentives”. At the same time, she said, “the US military continues to stealthily threaten us militarily and to commit acts of espionage against us with many means of reconnaissance” – a reference to flights of spy planes south of the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas – amidst to “joint military exercises aimed at aggression against us”. The war games involving US and South Korean command posts, not ground combat troops, ended Thursday after nine days, but the statement left no doubt that the confrontation on the Korean peninsula was escalating. drastically. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, meeting their opponents in Seoul on their first visit as members of President Joe Biden’s new cabinet, both emphasized the growing dangers of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles. . A sign of rising tensions was that US authorities began calling for “denuclearization of North Korea” instead of “complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” – the text of the declaration signed by Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un at their Singapore summit in June 2018. In a sign of differences between Washington and Seoul, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong said the “denuclearization” of the peninsula was “correct”. The United States removed its nuclear weapons from South Korea about 30 years ago and the South does not produce them. The threat of North Korean missile tests has consumed US efforts to try to bring out the dovish visions of South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, according to reports that North Korea was working feverishly to develop a US missile. long-range capable of transporting a nuclear warhead to targets anywhere in the United States. North Korea is also believed to have produced nuclear warheads and modernized its submarine fleet. The fear is that a North Korean submarine could fire a ballistic missile launched by a submarine or SLBM near the U.S. coast with greater accuracy than an ICBM or long-range ballistic missile fired thousands of kilometers away. Both Blinken and Austin delayed their dialogue in Korea with harsh language to persuade South Korea’s somewhat leftist government of the need to repair an alliance that became increasingly eroded during Donald Trump’s romance with Kim. Blinken set the tone, calling the alliance “a pillar for peace, security and prosperity” – familiar words that US officials have been using for years. He and Austin, he said, would “reaffirm the US commitment to the alliance and build it” – all to bring reluctant members of Moon’s government in line with US thinking. The final statement, issued by the North American and Korean sides in negotiations, was a masterpiece of diplomatic double talk, hiding differences, all US forces in South Korea “playing a critical role”. The statement said North Korea “nuclear and ballistic missile issues” were “a priority”, but did not say what to do about it. The word “shared” came up eight times – emphasizing “shared values” versus “shared threats” with “a shared commitment to address and resolve these problems”. Below the level of formal declarations, the US and South Korea still disagree on how to approach North Korea. “The leaders in Washington and Seoul must face several unresolved political differences to establish not only a coordinated North Korean strategy, but also a more robust alliance,” said Mathew Ha of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. “An important issue that can spark discord,” he said, “is the South Korean administration’s introduction of inter-Korean engagement programs and incentives to revive inter-Korean diplomacy.” Kim’s eagerness to conduct nuclear tests reflects the reality that “the fundamentals of North Korea are really not changing,” said Sidney Seiler, North Korea’s official at the National Intelligence Council. “North Korea has the goal long-term goal of normalizing its nuclear status, “that is, gaining recognition as a nuclear power. Kim Jong Un finally offers his answer to the US election: More NukesBy meeting Trump at summits in Singapore in 2018 and in Hanoi in 2019, Seiler said in a panel sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Kim “ensured the awareness in Washington that North Korea should be treated as an equal.” No way, he said, North Korean relations could improve “until North Korea takes denuclearization seriously.” North Korea is “gradually stepping up the pressure” by threatening to use ICBMs, said Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA, now a senior fellow in the center, but there would be “an advance in North-South-Korean relations until there was an advance in US-North Korea relations”. Victor Cha, who served on the National Security Council during George W. Bush’s presidency and now directs Korea’s CSIS program, clearly said that North Koreans “said they are no longer tied to the moratorium” of the Trump presidency while looking for “a way to get attention”. North Korea conducted its sixth and most recent underground nuclear test in September 2017 and tested an ICBM most recently, two months later. The North tested several short- and medium-range missiles before and after Trump met Kim for summits in Singapore in June 2018, in Hanoi in February 2019 and four months later in the village of the Panmunjom truce, but this was not seen as a problem of great concern. Linken, leaving on Thursday for a meeting with China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Anchorage, called on Chinese cooperation to persuade North Korea to get rid of its nuclear weapons. White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that “North Korea’s threats” would be “part of the discussion with the Chinese”. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top news in your inbox every day. Subscribe now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper into the stories that matter to you. To know more.