It depends on the American authorities exactly what this Christmas present will be, the North Korean Foreign Ministry noted.
Washington will receive a “gift” from Pyongyang for Christmas. Such a statement was made at the North Korean Foreign Ministry, CNN reports on Wednesday, December 4.
In particular, the DPRK’s first deputy foreign minister, Ri Tae Song, accused the United States of delaying negotiations on denuclearization and of using these negotiations by American politicians for their own purposes.
“The dialogue advertised by the United States is essentially nothing more than a stupid trick designed to draw the DPRK into this dialogue and use it for political purposes and during the election campaign in the United States” – said Ri Tae Song.
According to him, “what gift for Christmas (from North Korea) they will want to receive completely depends on the United States”.
The South Korean agency Yonhap interprets the words of the deputy minister as a threat to resume testing of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles if the US does not put forward new proposals for negotiations with the DPRK before the end of the year.
A few hours after Ri Tae Sung’s statements, US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Bigan assured that Washington did not intend to refuse negotiations with Pyongyang on the issue of nuclear disarmament.
Bigan admitted that activities to denuclearize the DPRK had become “hard work” for Washington. “Obviously, we have not achieved the progress we hoped for, but let me clarify: we did not give up and we will not give up on what we are doing,” the US special representative assured.
Recall, June 30, US President Donald Trump and DPRK leader Kim Jong-un met for the third time – on the demarcation line between South and North Korea. They agreed to resume contacts at the working level.
In October, the working delegations of the United States and North Korea held talks in Stockholm. At their end, the North Korean side announced the failure of the meeting and expressed disappointment to the United States. At the same time, the US State Department called the negotiations good and emphasized the need for time and patience to find solutions.