North Korea says it will not engage in sovereignty negotiations with the ‘two-faced’ US

SEOUL, Nov. 30 (Reuters) – North Korea has said it has no intention of negotiating sovereignty with the United States, criticizing the United States as “two-faced” for seeking dialogue while stepping up military activities in the region, state officials said. Media outlet Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported this on Thursday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister and senior official Kim Yo Jong told the United Nations Security Council this week that the United States had an “extreme double standard” over North Korea’s recent launch of its first spy satellite. said that it showed.

The meeting set the stage for a rare public spat between U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and North Korean Ambassador Kim Sung, who maintained that both countries’ military activities were defensive.

Kim Yo Jong said Thomas-Greenfield emphasized efforts to resume talks with North Korea despite lacking “legitimate grounds” to deny North Korea’s sovereignty over space exploration. Stated.

The United States and South Korea denounced the satellite launch as a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions banning North Korea’s use of ballistic missile technology.

Thomas-Greenfield also discusses how the United States insists on “diplomatic engagement,” and how its efforts to “restart dialogue” are linked to the provocative military presence of U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered submarines deployed on the Korean Peninsula. Nor was he able to come up with a more logical excuse for how it was integrated with his activities, Kim said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

Kim referred to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and said, “I once again make it clear that I ask the United States to revise the timing and agenda of resuming North Korea-US dialogue.” Stated. . “The sovereignty of an independent state can never be a subject of negotiation, and therefore North Korea will never sit down face-to-face with the United States for that purpose.”

Kim also said that it was not his country’s space program that had undermined peace and stability in the region, but the US government’s “double standards” and “high-handed and arbitrary practices.”

The Korean Central News Agency said in a separate message that Kim inspected photos taken by reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. naval base in San Diego and Kadena Air Base in Japan.

North Korea said the satellite was designed to monitor U.S. and South Korean military operations and photographed U.S. military bases around the world, including Guam and Italy, as well as locations such as the White House and the Pentagon.

But state media has not released any images, and there is growing debate over the satellite’s capabilities among officials and analysts in Seoul and Washington.

In a separate commentary, KCNA accused South Korea of ​​intensifying its so-called “warmongering moves” through joint military exercises with U.S. forces, including the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson.

The statement accused South Korean President Yun Seok-Yeol of playing an important role in “formalizing a concrete nuclear warmongering plan” by bringing in U.S. strategic nuclear assets and stepping up joint exercises involving Japan.

Seoul’s Ministry of Unification, which is in charge of inter-Korean affairs, issued a statement urging North Korea to “depart from the erroneous path of provocation and intimidation and take the path of dialogue and cooperation.”

South Korea was originally scheduled to launch its first reconnaissance satellite on a US Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday, but the plan was postponed due to weather.

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