DPRK considers contact with US a waste of time

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is not considering any contact with the United States that would only waste time, Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon said on Wednesday (June 23).

"We are not considering even the possibility of any contact with the U.S., let alone having it, which would get us nowhere, only taking up precious time," Ri said in a statement carried on state media KCNA.

He made the remarks after the new U.S. envoy for the DPRK said in Seoul on Monday that he looked forward to a "positive response soon" on dialogue from Pyongyang.

The DPRK's nuclear weapons program has been an intractable problem for Washington for years and in trying to change that, President Joe Biden's new administration conducted a review of policy and said it would seek "calibrated and practical" ways to persuade Pyongyang to denuclearize.

On Tuesday, the sister of DPRK leader Kim Jong Un said in a statement that the United States appeared to be interpreting signals from the DPRK in the "wrong way."

Kim Yo Jong, a senior official in the DPRK's ruling party, was responding to U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who on Sunday said he saw as an "interesting signal" a recent speech by Kim Jong Un on preparing for both confrontation and diplomacy with the United States.

The denuclearization talks between Pyongyang and Washington have been stalled since the second summit between DPRK leader Kim Jong Un and former U.S. President Donald Trump ended fruitless in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi in February 2019.

(Source: Reuters)