North Korea is extending an olive branch to the United States (U.S.) but on one condition “to accept the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) as a nuclear weapons state”.
In a statement on Tuesday, July 29, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister Kim Yo Jong said, “It is by no means beneficial for the U.S. and North Korea to remain in confrontation,” adding that North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state is irreversible.
According to AlJazeera, Yo Jong said, “DPRK is open to any option in defending its present national position.”
“DPRK has established a powerful nuclear deterrent and any attempt to deny the position of a nuclear weapons state to the country will be rejected,” she continued.
She warned that the US government's insistence on denuclearisation of North Korea would be interpreted as a mockery.
Her statement comes after an unnamed White House official revealed that Trump was willing to engage with Kim Jong Un for the purpose of achieving a full denuclearisation of North Korea.
The North Korean propaganda head also dismissed South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s efforts to mend ties with Pyongyang, including the halting of propaganda broadcasts at the tense inter-Korean border.
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test on October 9, 2006, and the development was followed by further tests in 2009, 2013, 2016 and 2017.
There are currently nine nuclear armed countries in the world which includes the US, Russia, China, United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan, and North Korea. Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, although it has not officially confirmed this.
