Things can get ‘dark and dangerous’: Kim
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is calling on the US to stop "its current way of calculation" if it is interested in continuing diplomatic talks, according to a report from the country's state news agency KCNA.
"First of all, it is necessary for the United States to stop the current way of calculation and approach us with a new way of calculation," Kim said in Pyongyang at the first meeting of the 14th session of the Supreme People's Assembly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, KCNA reports.
"What is obvious is that if the United States sticks to the current political way of calculation, the prospects for problem solving will be dark and very dangerous."
In February, President Donald Trump cut short his Hanoi, Vietnam, summit with Kim with no joint agreement or statement after Kim insisted all US sanctions be lifted from his country. Since the tense summit, North Korea has threatened to suspend denuclearization talks with the United States.
Trump said on Thursday he is open to meeting Kim again, but in his speech on Friday, the North Korean leader said the outcome in Hanoi led him to question the strategy he embraced last year of international engagement and talks with the United States. The US president said he wants sanctions on North Korea to remain in place, though he doesn't want to increase them.
The Hanoi summit "aroused a strong question if we were right in taking the steps with strategic decision and bold resolution, and evoked vigilance as to the US true willingness to improve its relations with the DPRK," Kim said, using the initials of North Korea's full name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The North Korean leader added that if the US were to ask for a third summit, it would be "with the condition that the US has the right attitude and finds a methodology that can be shared with us, we would be willing to try one more time."
Kim said he will "be patient" and wait until the end of this year for the US to decide if it wants another summit. "But it will be hard to get a good opportunity like the last time again," he said.
Responding to the comments from the North Korean leader, South Korea's presidential office said in a message to journalists in Seoul yesterday, "Our government will do what we can in order to maintain the current momentum for dialogue and help negotiations between the US and North Korea resume at an early date."
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