North Korea warns US to drop ‘hostile policy’

In this file photo, taken on June 12, 2018, US President Donald Trump (R) and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un shake hands following a signing ceremony during a historic summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island in Singapore. (By AFP)

North Korean state media have warned that an agreement reached at a 2018 summit between the leaders of North Korea and the United States in Singapore could become “a blank sheet of paper” if Washington did not “withdraw its hostile policy” toward Pyongyang.

“The arrogant and unilateral US policy will never work on the DPRK, which values sovereignty,” the official KCNA news agency said in an article on Tuesday, using an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The KCNA article came out on the eve of the first anniversary of the Singapore summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

The article warned that the four-point joint statement signed by Trump and Kim on June 12, 2018 pledging work toward a new relationship “is in danger of being a blank sheet of paper because the US is turning a blind eye to its implementation.”

“Now is the time for the US to withdraw its hostile policy concerning the DPRK,” it said.

The report echoed a statement that was issued by an unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman last week.

“The US would be well-advised to change its current method of calculation and respond to our request as soon as possible. There is a limit to our patience,” the official said.The US and North Korea had been negotiating since last year, when a rapprochement between North and South Koreas later led to a diplomatic opening between Pyongyang and Washington. But the talks effectively stalled in recent months after the second summit between Kim and Trump in the Vietnamese capital in February collapsed.

Still, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday that he believed negotiations between Pyongyang and the US would restart soon.

Speaking during a state visit to Finland, Moon said dialog was underway for the resumption of talks between North Korea and the US, “so I don’t think it’s a situation that needs a third country’s arrangement.”

President Moon and other South Korean officials had engaged in heavy shuttle diplomacy to facilitate the opening between Pyongyang and Washington.

Last week, Trump said he looked forward to meeting Kim again.

State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said on Monday that Trump and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would head to South Korea to meet Moon and coordinate efforts for the final, fully verified denuclearization of Korean Peninsula following the G20 summit slated for June 28-29 in Japan.

Washington has imposed rounds of unilateral sanctions and spearheaded multilateral ones against Pyongyang since 2006 over its nuclear and missile programs

Since the diplomatic engagement with the South and the US started, North Korea has taken a number of goodwill measures, including suspending all nuclear and missile testing.

America has reciprocated none of those measures.