Washington is prepared to talk to North Korea if it paves the way to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki has said, but that doesn’t mean US sanctions are going away.
“We are prepared to consider some form of diplomacy if it’s going to lead us down the path toward denuclearization,” Psaki said on the possibility of relations between Washington and Pyongyang.
Getting the Korean Peninsula to ditch nuclear weapons remains a “clear objective” for the Biden administration, she insisted, before adding: “We are, of course, continuing to enforce sanctions.”
Last week, when asked if the US president was planning to meet North Korean leader Kim Jon Un, Psaki replied that “[Biden’s] approach would be quite different, and that is not his intention.”
Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump held a landmark summit with Kim in Singapore in summer 2018. The meeting raised hopes that Pyongyang would curb its nuclear program; however, two more summits between the leaders brought no breakthrough, with the sides instead returning to an exchange of threats.
There’s been no improvement in ties between Washington and Pyongyang since Biden took office, with North Korea labelling the administration’s efforts to approach them a “cheap trick” intended to make America look good internationally rather than a sincere gesture.
Any contact will only be possible when the US changes its hostile policy towards North Korea, the country’s first vice-minister of foreign affairs, Choe Son Hui, said last month. She also decried Washington’s hopes for the total denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as “groundless rhetoric.”
The remarks were followed by a series of North Korean test launches of what Pyongyang termed “tactical guided missiles” in late March. Biden reacted to the test by warning he would “respond accordingly” if North Korea opted to “escalate.”
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