North Korea has accused the United States of maintaining a ‘hostile policy’ towards Pyongyang following President Joe Biden’s describing the country’s nuclear programme as a ‘serious threat’ to global security.
The accusation comes as the Biden administration prepares to unveil its strategy for dealing with the threat posed by North Korea, according to the BBC.
In a statement carried in state media on Sunday, North Korea’s foreign ministry called President Biden’s comments about its nuclear programme in a speech to Congress last week ‘intolerable’ and a ‘big blunder’.
Kwon Jong Gun of the Department of US Affairs of the Foreign Ministry said: ‘His statement clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy towards the DPRK [North Korea] as it had been done by the US for over half a century.’
The report cited White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki as saying on Friday that a review of US policy had been completed and suggested Biden had learned from the experience of the previous four administrations who had tried, and failed, to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.
Psaki said Washington’s ‘policy will not focus on achieving a grand bargain, nor will it rely on strategic patience’. Instead the US would pursue a ‘calibrated practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy’ with North Korea while making ‘practical progress’ on increasing security for the US and its allies.
The BBC notes that Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, became the first US president to reach out directly to Kim, meeting him three times. However, they failed to reach any agreement to end either the nuclear weapons programme or the sanctions.