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NKorea Slams US-SKorea-Japan Alliance 02/10 06:11
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said an elevated
U.S. security partnership with South Korea and Japan poses a grave threat to
his country and vowed to further bolster his nuclear weapons program, state
media reported Sunday.
Kim has previously made similar warnings, but his latest statement implies
again that the North Korean leader won't likely embrace President Donald
Trump's overture to meet him and revive diplomacy anytime soon.
In a speech marking the 77th founding anniversary of the Korean People's
Army on Saturday, Kim said the U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral security
partnership established under a U.S. plot to form a NATO-like regional military
bloc is inviting military imbalance on the Korean Peninsula and "raising a
grave challenge to the security environment of our state," according to the
official Korean Central News Agency.
"Referring to a series of new plans for rapidly bolstering all deterrence
including nuclear forces, he clarified once again the unshakable policy of more
highly developing the nuclear forces," KCNA said.
Amid stalled diplomacy with the U.S. and South Korea in recent years, Kim
has focused on enlarging and modernizing his arsenal of nuclear weapons. In
response, the United States and South Korea have expanded their bilateral
military exercises and trilateral training involving Japan. North Korea has
lashed out at those drills, calling them rehearsals to invade the country.
Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump has said he would reach out to Kim
again as he boasted of his high-stakes summit with him during his first term.
During a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba
on Friday, Trump said that "We will have relations with North Korea, with Kim
Jong Un. I got along with him very well, as you know. I think I stopped the
war."
During a Fox News interview broadcast on Jan. 23, Trump called Kim "a smart
guy" and "not a religious zealot." Asked whether he will reach out to Kim
again, Trump replied, "I will, yeah."
Trump met Kim three times in 2018-19 to discuss how to end North Korea's
nuclear program in what was the first-ever summitry between the leaders of the
U.S. and North Korea. The high-stakes diplomacy eventually collapsed because
Trump rejected Kim's offer to dismantle his main nuclear complex, a partial
denuclearization step, in return for broad sanctions relief.
North Korea hasn't directly responded to Trump's recent overture, as it
continues weapons testing activities and hostile rhetoric against the U.S. Many
experts say Kim is now preoccupied with his dispatch of troops to Russia to
support its war efforts against Ukraine. They say Kim would still eventually
consider returning to diplomacy with Trump if he determines he would fail to
maintain the current solid cooperation with Russia after the war ends.
In his Saturday speech, Kim reaffirmed that North Korea "will invariably
support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend
their sovereignty, security and territorial integrity." Kim accused the U.S. of
being behind "the war machine which is stirring up the tragic situation of
Ukraine."
In South Korea, some worry that Trump might abandon the international
community's long-running goal of achieving a complete denuclearization of North
Korea to produce a diplomatic achievement.
But a joint statement issued by Trump and Ishiba after their summit stated
the two leaders reaffirmed "their resolute commitment to the complete
denuclearization of the DPRK," the acronym of North Korea's official name, the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The statement said the U.S. and Japan
also affirmed the importance of the Japan-U.S.-South Korean trilateral
partnership in responding to North Korea.
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