[The Trump administration has been trying to revive nuclear talks with Mr. Kim. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Mr. Ri on Wednesday to discuss a potential second summit meeting between the American and North Korean leaders to build on their first one in Singapore in June.]
By Megan Specia
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The
North Korean foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, said his country had “reasons to
distrust” the
United States. He spoke at the United Nations General Assembly
on Saturday. Credit
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
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North Korea’s foreign minister said on
Saturday that there was “no way we will denuclearize” without getting so-called
trust-building concessions from the United States, an assertion that reflected
a continuing divide over efforts to ease nuclear tensions on the Korean
Peninsula.
“Without any trust in the United States,
there will be no confidence in our national security, and under such
circumstances there is no way we will unilaterally disarm ourselves first,” the
North Korean minister, Ri Yong-ho, told the United Nations General Assembly.
Even so, hours later at a rally, President
Trump praised the two countries’ improved relations, to the point of saying he
and the North Korean leader “fell in love.”
“I was really being tough, and so was he,”
Mr. Trump said Saturday of Kim Jong-un. “And we would go back and forth.” He
added, to laughter from the crowd in Wheeling, W.Va.: “And then we fell in
love, O.K.? No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great
letters. We fell in love.”
The United States has called for North Korea
to surrender all of its nuclear capabilities before other issues can be
negotiated. The North insists it needs reciprocal concessions from the United
States, including the lifting of crippling economic sanctions and an official
declaration that the 1950-53 Korean War has ended.
Speaking to world leaders who had gathered
for the General Assembly, Mr. Ri expressed a “firm determination to turn the
Korean Peninsula into a land of peace” but said the American-backed sanctions
were a “hostile policy.”
The Trump administration has been trying to
revive nuclear talks with Mr. Kim. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Mr.
Ri on Wednesday to discuss a potential second summit meeting between the
American and North Korean leaders to build on their first one in Singapore in
June.
“We’re going to have another meeting,” Mr.
Trump said at the rally. “Chairman Kim would like to have another meeting.”
Next month, Mr. Pompeo will travel to
Pyongyang, the North’s capital, to try to set the stage. In remarks to
reporters, Mr. Pompeo described his discussions with Mr. Ri as “very positive.”
But throughout his time at the United Nations this past week, Mr. Pompeo
emphasized that continued sanctions would be part of the Americans’ approach.
“We are well into a diplomatic process, and
we hope — indeed, we want — to see this through to a successful end,” Mr.
Pompeo said this past week. “I want to reiterate that the future can be very
bright for North Korea if it makes good on its commitment to final, fully
verified denuclearization.”
The question of declaring an official end to
the Korean War has exposed a potential gap between Seoul and Washington.
After meeting with Mr. Kim in North Korea
this month, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea urged the United States to
declare an end to the war as an incentive for the North to denuclearize.
Washington has been hesitant to sign an official peace accord before Pyongyang
denuclearizes.
On Saturday, Mr. Ri also took aim at the
United Nations Security Council, which has voted in favor of sanctions against
North Korea since 2006 in an attempt to deter the country’s nuclear program. He
said the Council was acting only in the interest of the United States, a “very
concerning stand.”
Mr. Ri said his country had already
undertaken “significant good-will measures” to signal a readiness to talk
peace. They included dismantling a nuclear test site and halting nuclear and
intercontinental ballistic missile tests, although critics have questioned the
practical effect and the extent of those steps.
“We have far more reasons to distrust the
United States,” Mr. Ri said. “The United States possessed nuclear weapons
earlier than we did, and the U.S. is the only country that used them in real
war.”
