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“We take this opportunity to warn the new US administration which is trying to smell powder in our country,” she said in a statement, according to the country’s official news agency.
“If he wants to sleep in peace for (the) next four years, he better refrain from causing a stench at his first step,” she said. The warning comes as the United States and South Korea conduct mock and scaled-down military exercises and U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin land in the region for meetings with their Japanese and South Korean counterparts.
Earlier Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the administration had contacted North Korea, noting that it had “a number of channels, as we always have eu, which we can use “.
“Diplomacy is always our goal. Our goal is to reduce the risk of escalation. But, to date, we have received no response,” Psaki said, noting that awareness “follows more than a year without active dialogue with North Korea, despite several attempts to engage the United States. “
However, experts told CNN ahead of Kim Yo Jong’s post that Pyongyang was likely to push back diplomatic efforts for the time being for a number of reasons, including the coronavirus pandemic, the review of North Korea’s policy of the Biden team, the meetings in the region and the rhetoric of the administration.
The Biden administration is still conducting a review of the Trump administration’s policy in North Korea, which could be announced “in the coming weeks,” according to a senior State Department official. While President Joe Biden is not likely to write “love letters” to Kim Jong Un like his predecessor did, Biden’s administration has yet to offer a clear break with the government. previous administration in its stated goals for its approach to the Hermit Kingdom. Repeatedly, in testimonies, statements or briefings, US officials have said their goal is “the complete denuclearization of North Korea.”
“This is no solution for North Koreans,” said Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.
“ Denuclearization is a non-starter ”
“Denuclearization is a non-starter,” said Vipin Narang, associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who added that “every time we use that phrase it’s a five-yard penalty because the North Koreans have never accepted it. “
North Koreans see several reasons why they should not denuclearize based on recent history, including situations in Iraq, Libya and more recently Iran. Iraqi and Libyan leaders toppled after abandoning their nuclear programs under pressure from the United States, while Iran struck a deal with the United States only to remove the Trump administration, impose economic sanctions crippling, then assassinate the country’s leading general and nuclear scientist.
Frank Aum, senior expert on North Korea at the US Institute of Peace, noted that “it is good to stick to the long-term goal of denuclearization, complete denuclearization for Korea. North, but I think the way your post is going to be very important. “
“It has to be nuanced because you can’t just say, you know, that we want to have talks, and the talks are going to be about the complete denuclearization of North Korea, because it seems very one-sided,” he said. he told CNN. “It would have to be long term and not the Libyan model of full denuclearization from the start before we give them everything they want.”
In 2018, following a summit in Singapore between then-President Donald Trump and Kim, North Korea and the United States agreed to work towards “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” – a phrase which North Koreans have long interpreted to mean the United States. also has the obligation to withdraw any nuclear-capable weaponry available to it on Korean soil.
But after the summit, Trump administration officials, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said the deal commits North Korea to the full, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of its nuclear program, although ‘he said no such thing.
North Korea would continue to describe Pompeo as an “irreducible toxin” whose “unilateral, thief-type denuclearization demands” violated the spirit and letter of the Trump-Kim summit. An unnamed North Korean official told the Korea Central News Agency in March 2020 that “listening to Pompeo’s ridiculous language has made us give up all hope of dialogue.”
Narang said that Biden officials’ insistence on adopting the same emphasis on North Korean denuclearization “probably doesn’t help, when you insist on something they flatly rejected.”
Former officials and experts also noted that pledges by Biden administration officials not to lift tariffs on North Korea during confirmation hearings have not gone unnoticed, which could be one of the factors. behind Pyongyang’s decision not to engage directly with the United States.
North Korea follows meetings closely
Kim will also closely follow meetings in Seoul and Tokyo between Blinken and Austin and their Japanese and South Korean counterparts this week and a meeting in Alaska between Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and their Chinese counterparts. North Korea should take these conversations into account, especially with South Koreans.
“What if the United States and China walked out of their meetings this week and made it clear that they are heading for escalating US-China tensions? If you are Kim Jong Un, you would read that to mean that he is less likely that China will put pressure on North Korea, “said Anthony Ruggiero, a former National Security Council official.” If that happens, maybe Kim now knows he can go to China to buy more parts for its nuclear programs, or to go to China and sell more coal. That would be a bad sign for the future of any US-North Korean diplomacy. “
Aum also postulated that the North Koreans might also signal “that they want to engage with the United States at a higher level, as there has been the precedent that was set with the leadership-level summits between Trump and Kim “.
Efforts at the operational level talks between North Korean administration officials and Trump have been largely rejected by Pyongyang, and the few meetings that have taken place have yielded no tangible results.
Despite Kim Yo Jong’s warning to the new administration, North Korea has not greeted the arrival of the new US president with a test of its missiles or other weapons, as is often the case.
Aum said he didn’t think they “would want to do anything to provoke the United States before a bigger signal that the United States is going to take a very hostile approach.”
However, in recent days, there has been activity at North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear facility, according to analysis of new satellite images released by 38 North, a leading North Korean watch group.
And official trips to the region, military exercises and Biden’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in April could still push Pyongyang towards some sort of provocation.
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