North Korea's King Jong Un refused efforts by the United State to resume talks, claiming the U.S. push for diplomacy is a ploy to hiding its "hostile acts."
Kim believes the Biden administration is "touting 'diplomatic engagement' and 'dialogue without preconditions' but it is no more than a petty trick for deceiving the international community and hiding its hostile acts."
He adds that the U.S.'s military threats remain "utterly unchanged" and accuses the U.S. of employing "cunning ways and methods" to maintain its "hostile policy" toward North Korea.
U.S. officials have expressed their desire to hold talks with North Korea "anywhere and at any time." However, U.S. sanctions aimed at North Korean denuclearization have stalled diplomacy for almost three years.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below:
China, North Korea's last major ally, said Thursday it hopes the restoration of hotlines would help improve ties between the two Koreas. But it also urged the U.S. to roll back some of the sanctions targeting the North's civilian economy.
"The U.S. should avoid repeating empty slogans, but rather show its sincerity by presenting an appealing plan," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. "It should invoke the rollback terms of the Security Council's [North Korea]–related resolutions as soon as possible and make necessary adjustments to relevant sanctions."
President Joe Biden told the U.N. General Assembly last week that his administration would seek "serious and sustained diplomacy" to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency closed meeting on Thursday at the request of the United States, the U.K. and France on North Korea's recent tests.
Kim has expressed willingness to restore stalled communication lines with South Korea in the coming days.
North Korea's outreach to Seoul came after South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who seeks progress in his appeasement policy on North Korea before he leaves office next May, proposed a symbolic peace declaration during his U.N. speech last week.
"Kim Jong Un will likely continue to use South Korea to move the Biden administration in its favor," Kwak Gil Sup, head of One Korea Center, a website specializing in North Korea affairs, wrote on Facebook. "He'll make more outright attempts to wedge South Korea and the U.S. apart. It's a highly sophisticated strategy to make the best use of the impatience of the [Moon] government preoccupied with producing progress in its peace process on the Korean Peninsula in its final months in office."
Meanwhile, Kim's sister was elected as a member of the State Affairs Commission led by her brother during this week's Supreme People's Assembly session, KCNA reported. The appointment of Kim Yo Jong, who already is a senior ruling party official who handles Pyongyang's relations with Seoul, is another sign Kim is solidifying his family's rule in the face of mounting economic difficulties caused by the pandemic and the sanctions.
During a speech at his country's rubber-stamp parliament on Wednesday, Kim said the restoration in early October of cross-border hotlines—which have been largely dormant for more than a year—would realize the Korean people's wishes for a peace between the two Koreas, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Kim still accused South Korea of being "bent on begging external support and cooperation while clamoring for international cooperation in servitude to the U.S.," rather than committing to resolving the matters independently between the Koreas.
Kim echoed his powerful sister Kim Yo Jong's calls for Seoul to abandon "double-dealing attitude" and "hostile viewpoint" over the North's missile tests and other developments. Some experts say North Korea is pressuring South Korea to tone down its criticism of its ballistic missile tests, which are banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions, as part of its quest to receive an international recognition as a nuclear power.
South Korea's Unification Ministry responded that it will prepare for the restoration of the hotlines that it said are needed to discuss and resolve many pending issues. It said it expects them to operate smoothly because their restoration was directly instructed by Kim Jong Un.
