Beijing, May 16.– North Korea has nixed talks with South Korea set for Wednesday and threatened to pull out of next month’s summit with the U.S., underscoring the difficulty of negotiating with an ossified Stalinist regime that has clung onto power for seven decades precisely by switching between hostility and engagement with assorted world powers.
North Korea’s state KCNA news agency announced the initial cancellation Tuesday, citing the joint air force drills between Seoul and Washington that it deemed a “provocation” and practice for invasion. North Korea has long railed against U.S.-South Korean military drills, but the move surprised many Korea-watchers as Kim had earlier said negotiations would continue regardless of the exercises.
Meanwhile, a North Korean official separately said Wednesday that the summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump set for June 12 in Singapore would be scrapped if predicated on “one-sided” demands to give up nuclear weapons.
“We are no longer interested in a negotiation that will be all about driving us into a corner,” North Korea’s first vice foreign minister Kim Kye Gwan said Wednesday. “This would force us to reconsider whether we would accept the North Korea-U.S. summit meeting.” (...)
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