North Korea has reacted furiously to the US president’s description of the country as a security threat, calling it a “big blunder”.
Last week, Joe Biden, in his first address to Congress, called North Korea and Iran’s nuclear programs “serious threats” to American and world security and said he’ll work with allies to address those problems through diplomacy and stern deterrence.
Yonhap News Agency reported that Pyongyang said the US is preparing for an all-out showdown with the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea).
Kwon Jong Gun, a senior North Korean Foreign Ministry official, was unimpressed, saying talk of diplomacy was being used to cover up US hostile acts.
“The DPRK Foreign Ministry vehemently denounces the provocation from the U.S. as a vivid manifestation of the hostile policy toward the DPRK to tarnish its image and as a crude violation of its state sovereignty,” it said.
North Korea warned that the U.S. will “surely and certainly regret for acting lightly, defying our warnings.”
Another unnamed foreign ministry spokesperson said the US had insulted the dignity of North Korea’s leadership by criticizing the country’s human rights situation.
The criticism is a provocation that shows the US is “girding itself up for an all-out showdown” with North Korea, the spokesperson said, adding that it will be answered accordingly.
On Friday the White House said that a review of US policy towards North Korea had been completed.
Press secretary Jen Psaki did not give details of the review’s findings but she said the Biden administration would seek a middle ground between Donald Trump’s “grand bargain” and Barack Obama’s “strategic patience” approaches.
Excerpt from Yonhap report:
North Korea said Sunday that U.S. President Joe Biden made a “big blunder” after he called Pyongyang’s nuclear program a serious threat, warning the U.S. will face a “worse and worse crisis beyond control.”
Kwon Jong-gun, director-general of the Department of U.S. Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, made the remarks after Biden pledged in his first congressional address last week to work with allies to address “serious threats” from the North and Iran through diplomacy and stern deterrence.
“It is certain that the U.S. chief executive made a big blunder in the light of the present-day viewpoint,” Kwon said. “Now that what the keynote of the U.S. new DPRK policy has become clear, we will be compelled to press for corresponding measures, and with time the U.S.”
The official also said that the U.S. “will face worse and worse crisis beyond control in the near future if it is set to approach the DPRK-U.S. ties, still holding on the outdated policy from Cold War-minded perspective and viewpoint.”
“Diplomacy” and “stern deterrence,” which Biden pleged to used to address threats from the North, are “a spurious signboard for covering up its hostile acts” and “a means for posing nuclear threats” to the North, respectively, the official said.
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Sources: TheGatewayPundit, Yonhap News Agency, Fox8 News
