North Korea says Biden policy shows US is intent on being hostile – and vows to respond

A Foreign Ministry spokesman accused Washington of insulting the dignity of the country’s leadership by criticising North Korea’s human rights situation

Under the policy announced on Friday, Biden has settled on a new approach to pressuring North Korea to give up nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Photo: KCNA/via Reuters

Published: 7:23am, 2 May 2021Updated: 8:58pm, 2 May 2021

Recent comments from US President Joe Biden and members of his administration show he is intent on maintaining a hostile policy towards North Korea that will require a corresponding response from Pyongyang, North Korean officials said on Sunday.

The officials’ comments came in a series of statements carried on state news agency KCNA, after the White House on Friday said US officials had completed a months-long review of North Korean policy.

In one statement, a Foreign Ministry spokesman accused Washington of insulting the dignity of the country’s supreme leadership by criticising North Korea’s human rights situation.

The criticism was a provocation that showed the United States was “girding itself up for an all-out showdown” with North Korea, and would be answered accordingly, the unnamed spokesman said.

In a separate statement, Kwon Jong-gun, director general of the Department of US Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, cited Biden’s first policy speech to Congress on Wednesday, where the president said nuclear programmes in North Korea and Iran posed threats that would be addressed through “diplomacy and stern deterrence”.

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