Kim blasts sanctions but ready to meet Trump

Reuters

Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, said Tuesday he is ready to meet US President Donald Trump anytime to achieve their common goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, but warned he may have to take an alternative path if US sanctions and pressure against the country continued.

In his New Year address, Kim said denuclearization is his “firm will” and suggested for the first time that DPRK would no longer produce nuclear weapons, but also urged Washington to take unspecified corresponding action to speed up the stalled diplomatic process.

DPRK might be “compelled to explore a new path” to defend its sovereignty if the United States “seeks to force something upon us unilaterally ... and remains unchanged in its sanctions and pressure,” Kim said in his nationally televised address.

There was no immediate reaction from the US State Department, but Kim Eui-keum, spokesman of the South Korean presidential Blue House, said it represented Kim’s willingness to develop inter-Korean relations and advance DPRK-US relations.

The Blue House spokesman said Kim’s unwavering will was anticipated to have positive influence on resolving the peninsula issues smoothly in the new year.

Stressing the importance for inter-Korean cooperation and exchanges, the DPRK leader said that he was willing to reopen the inter-Korean factory park in the border town of Kaesong and resume tours of the scenic Mount Kumgang area.

The Kaesong Industrial Complex was closed in February 2016 following a DPRK nuclear test. Before the shutdown, 123 South Korean companies ran factories in the industrial zone, employing about 54,000 DPRK workers.

Tours to Mount Kumgang have been suspended since a tourist was shot dead in July 2008.