A senior official of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Friday reiterated the country's position of no talks with the United States unless Washington changes its hostile policy towards Pyongyang.
In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo Jong, first vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea and the younger sister of the DPRK's top leader Kim Jong Un, said another summit with U.S. President Donald Trump was "useless" as it would only benefit Trump politically and "we have nothing to gain."
"It is still my personal opinion, however, I doubt that things like the DPRK-U.S. summit talks would happen this year," she said.
Last week, South Korean President Moon Jae-in proposed another summit between Kim and Trump before the U.S. general elections to speed up the denuclearization process on the Korean Peninsula, which was later rejected by DPRK First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui.
On Tuesday, Trump said that he was open to another summit with Kim Jong Un, even as Pyongyang signaled it was uninterested in resuming the stalled nuclear talks.
Therefore, Kim Yo Jong's statement on Friday is considered as a response to the proposal for another summit.
"Let me assume that the DPRK-U.S. summit talks does occur. The thing is that, in this case, the U.S. would have a sigh of relief by means of dialogue alone with our leadership, buying time to be assured by the personal relations between the top leaders again. But, we have nothing to gain from a negotiation with the U.S., and we do not even harbour any expectation about it," Kim Yo Jong said.
"The U.S. only wishes to buy time, keeping the door open to dialogue and calming us down," she added. "There is no need for us to sit across with the U.S. right now, who is obsessed with the thoughts on what and how it can get more from us over the negotiating table, and I think it is the issue to be decided when the major changes are made in the attitude of the U.S.," she added.
Meanwhile, Pyongyang would remain optimistic about a change in the U.S. attitude, she said.
"We would like to make it clear that it does not necessarily mean the denuclearization is not possible. But what we mean is that it is not possible at this point of time," she said, adding, "I remind the U.S. that the denuclearization on the Korean peninsula can be realized only when there are major changes made on the other side, i.e. the irreversible simultaneous major steps to be taken in parallel with our actions."
The DPRK would develop a long-term plan to cope with and contain long-term threats from the United States and safeguard its national interests and sovereignty under such conditions, Kim Yo Jong said, adding "we should strengthen and steadily increase our practical capabilities."
Nuclear talks between the DPRK and the United States have stalled since the second Kim-Trump summit in Vietnam's Hanoi in February 2019 failed to strike a deal.
