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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea has warned that it could revive a state policy aimed at strengthening its nuclear arsenal if the US does not lift economic sanctions against the country .
The statement issued Friday night by the Foreign Ministry inscribed in a climate of discomfort between Washington and Seoul against the use of sanctions and pressure for the North to give up its nuclear program.
The ministry said North Korea could resume its "pyongjin" policy of simultaneously advancing its nuclear force and economic development if the United States does not change its position.
The North has not threatened to abandon the ongoing nuclear negotiations with the United States. But he accused Washington of misrepresenting the commitments made by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump during their June summit in Singapore to work on a Korean peninsula without nuclear energy, without specifying how and when that would happen.
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"The United States believes that their often repeated" sanctions and pressures "lead to" denuclearization. "We can not help but laugh at such a stupid idea," says the statement released under the head of the the Institute for American Studies of the Ministry. "Improving relationships and penalties is inconsistent."
After a series of provocative and missile nuclear tests last year, Kim turned to diplomacy when he met Trump between three summits with South Korean President Moon Jae- in, which strongly incited to revive the nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Seoul.
However, the North has been playing hard since the summit, insisting that sanctions should be lifted before any progress in the nuclear talks, fueling doubts about Kim 's ability to remove a nuclear program that has been in place. he considers it his greatest guarantee of survival.
Before his first summit with Moon in April, Kim said the country should focus on economic development, with the "pyongjin" policy having won a "big victory". He also said that the North would stop testing nuclear and long-range missiles and close its nuclear test site. The North unilaterally dismantled the nuclear test site in May, but did not invite experts to observe and verify the event.
Friday's statement marked the first time the North had declared that it could resume weapons testing and other development activities since Kim announced a new national policy in April.
"If the United States continues to behave arrogantly without showing any change in its position, without properly understanding our repeated demand, the DPRK could add something to its policy to direct all efforts toward economic construction adopted in April . the word "pyongjin" could appear again, "the statement said, referring to North Korea under its official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"Pyongjin" means "double advancement".
Moon described the inter-Korean commitment as crucial to solving the nuclear stalemate. A large number of South Korean CEOs accompanied Moon during his visit to Pyongyang in September, when he agreed to standardize operations in an industrial park and resume travel of South Korean visitors to the North, where possible, optimistic about the end of sanctions. and allow such projects.
But South Korea's enthusiasm for its relations with its rival has also created unease in the United States, as the North fears more and more of indulging in the promise of denuclearization. South Korea last month came back on a proposal to lift some of its unilateral sanctions against North Korea to create a diplomatic space following Trump's brutal retort that Seoul could not do anything without it. Washington approval.
