North Korea says ‘no way’ will disarm unilaterally without trust

North Korea’s foreign minister told the United Nations on Saturday continued sanctions were deepening its mistrust in the United States and there was no way the country would give up its nuclear weapons unilaterally under such circumstances.
Ri Yong Ho told the world body’s annual General Assembly that North Korea had taken “significant goodwill measures” in the past year, such as stopping nuclear and missiles tests, dismantling the nuclear test site, and pledging not to proliferate nuclear weapons and nuclear technology.
“However, we do not see any corresponding response from the US,” he said.
“Without any trust in the US there will be no confidence in our national security and under such circumstances there is no way we will unilaterally disarm ourselves first.”
While Ri reprised familiar North Korean complaints about Washington’s resistance to a “phased” approach to denuclearization under which North Korea would be rewarded as it took gradual steps, his statement appeared significant in that it did not reject unilateral denuclearization out of hand as Pyongyang has done in the past.
Ri referred to a joint statement issued by Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump at a first ever summit between a serving US president and a North Korean leader in Singapore on June 12, when Kim pledged to work toward “denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” while Trump promised guarantees of North Korea’s security.
North Korea has been seeking a formal end to the 1950-53 Korea War, but the United States has said Pyongyang must give up its nuclear weapons first. Washington has also resisted calls to relax tough international sanctions on North Korea.
Even so, the tone of Ri’s speech was dramatically different from last year, when he told the UN General Assembly that targeting the US mainland with North Korea’s rockets was inevitable after “Mr. Evil President” Trump called Kim a “rocket man” on a suicide mission.
This year at the United Nations, Trump, who last year threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea, heaped praise on Kim for his courage in taking steps to disarm, but said much work still had to be done and sanctions must remain in place until North Korea denuclearizes.
On Wednesday, Trump said he did not have a time frame for this, saying “If it takes two years, three years or five months – doesn’t matter.”
China and Russia argue that the UN Security Council should reward Pyongyang for steps taken.
However, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the UN Security Council on Thursday that: “Enforcement of Security Council sanctions must continue vigorously and without fail until we realize the fully, final, verified denuclearization.”
The Security Council has unanimously boosted sanctions on North Korea since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Pompeo met Ri on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and said afterwards that he would visit Pyongyang again next month to prepare for a second summit.