North Korea condemns US offer of dialogue as ‘petty trick’
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un condemned a United States offer of dialogue as a "petty trick", state media reported yesterday, and accused the Joe Biden administration of continuing a hostile policy against his nuclear-armed country.
The US has repeatedly offered to meet North Korean representatives anywhere, at any time, without preconditions, while saying it will pursue denuclearisation.
But Mr Kim condemned the declarations as "no more than a petty trick for deceiving the international community and hiding its hostile acts", the KCNA news agency reported.
The new administration was pursuing "military threats" and a "hostile policy" unchanged from the past, "but employs more cunning ways and methods in doing so", he said in an address to the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's rubber-stamp Parliament.
Pyongyang has been largely biding its time in recent months as it assessed the Biden government and focused on domestic issues. But Mr Kim's speech was the latest in a series of actions with international ramifications this month.
This week, North Korea tested what it said was a hypersonic gliding missile and earlier this month announced it had successfully fired a long-range cruise missile, after holding a scaled-down military parade.
The US condemned this week's launch but says it has no hostile intent towards Pyongyang, and as recently as Wednesday, its envoy to North Korea Sung Kim reiterated the offer of dialogue. - AFP
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