[On Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency, the official state news agency of the government in Pyongyang, reported that American “special units” had flown 1,200 kilometers, or about 745 miles, to the Philippines over Pacific waters. It described the exercise as preparing for an “infiltration into Pyongyang,” which could be done with a “change of direction.”]
By
Edward Wong
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North Korean soldiers in the Demilitarized Zone last week.
Over the weekend,
North Korean state media warned that the diplomacy forged
between
the North’s leader and President Trump was in jeopardy.
Credit Carl Court/Getty Images
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WASHINGTON
— North Korean state media
criticized the United States over the weekend for “extremely provocative and
dangerous military moves” in Pacific waters and warned that the diplomacy
forged between the two countries’ leaders during their Singapore summit meeting
in June could be in jeopardy.
The belligerent articles were the first
official comments from North Korea since a frustrated President Trump announced
on Friday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was canceling his most recent
plan to travel to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
Mr. Trump’s announcement, made in a series of
tweets, was the first acknowledgment by the American president that the
diplomatic process with North Korea had stalled.
He said the United States had not been making
“sufficient progress” on getting North Korea to halt or dismantle its nuclear
weapons program, and blamed China for the slow progress. Some American
officials and analysts in Beijing, however, have said China generally has
adhered to an American-led economic sanctions plan against North Korea.
On Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency,
the official state news agency of the government in Pyongyang, reported that
American “special units” had flown 1,200 kilometers, or about 745 miles, to the
Philippines over Pacific waters. It described the exercise as preparing for an
“infiltration into Pyongyang,” which could be done with a “change of
direction.”
The report also said the U.S.S. Michigan, a
nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, had transported units of Green
Berets, Delta Force and other elite soldiers in late July or early August from
Okinawa, Japan, to a naval base in South Korea.
The news agency cited South Korean radio as
its source, not any independent evidence. The Pentagon generally does not
comment on operations of its special units.
In a statement on Monday, the State
Department said Mr. Pompeo spoke last week with the South Korean foreign
minister, Kang Kyung-wha, and the two men “agreed that pressure must continue”
until Pyongyang dismantles its nuclear weapons program. Mr. Pompeo also
appointed a special envoy, Stephen E. Biegun, last week to oversee diplomacy
with North Korea.
At his June meeting in Singapore with the
North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, Mr. Trump promised to cancel military
exercises between the United States and South Korea, which surprised both the
Pentagon and the South Korean government. Since then, large exercises between
the two allied nations have been put on hold. The United States maintains about
28,500 troops in South Korea.
The Pyongyang news report did not provide
details on the American military moves that North Korea was asserting had taken
place. It appeared to lay the foundation for blaming stalled diplomacy on
American officials by accusing them of reneging on promises made at the summit
meeting.
The news agency cited a Sunday commentary in
Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the central committee of the Workers’
Party of Korea, that said the “extremely provocative and dangerous military
moves” would “mar the hard-won atmosphere of the peace on the Korean Peninsula”
and the dialogue and agreements that had come out of the summit meeting.
The commentary said that “such acts prove
that the U.S. is hatching a criminal plot to unleash a war” against North Korea
and “commit a crime which deserves merciless divine punishment.” It also said
the United States had “double-dealing attitudes” and was trying to engage in
diplomacy with “a smile on its face” while conducting military drills with
special units.
Right after the summit meeting, Mr. Trump
said that North Korea was on the path to “denuclearization” and that the
nuclear threat had abated. In fact, North Korea never agreed to a process to
get rid of its nuclear weapons, and experts estimate that it has as many as 60
warheads. It also has been developing a ballistic missile that can deliver a
warhead to the mainland United States.
North Korean officials want the United States
to first support a peace declaration that will bring a formal end to the Korean
War, which began in 1950. The South Korean government has also said this should
be a priority.
“Perhaps we’re starting to see the
frustration in the White House over being played on these grandiose promises of
denuclearization that the North Koreans do not intend to fulfill until they get
everything they need, and want, from the United States in return,” said Jean H.
Lee, director of the Wilson Center’s center on Korean history and public
policy.
