N.Korea suspicious of US ‘dialogue offensive’
Pyongyang insists it will not give up nuclear weapons
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
North Korea “will not budge” away from developing nuclear weapons as Pyongyang’s state-run media criticized the United States for an insincere offer of dialogue Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s suggested at a forum last week that Washington would talk with Pyongyang even without preconditions like demanding the reclusive state’s willingness to denuclearize.
The offer of dialogue without strings attached appeared to offer a way through an impasse that has lasted for years, during which North Korea’s rogue development of nukes has allowed it to threaten the U.S. mainland with greater credibility than ever before.
Tillerson then backtracked last Friday, insisting at a United Nations Security Council meeting that the North would have to “earn its way back to the table.”
North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported, “There is no change in our stance that we will not budge an inch in our march toward strengthening our nuclear force.”
Its commentary accused Washington of “trying to shift responsibility for tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”
