Biden has a ‘hostile policy’, says N Korea

SEOUL: North Korea on Sunday accused US President Joe Biden of pursuing a hostile policy, dismissing "spurious" American diplomacy and warning of a response.

Biden had said on Wednesday that his administration would deal with the threat posed by Pyongyang’s nuclear programme "through diplomacy as well as stern deterrence". The White House said on Friday that the president was open to negotiations with North Korea on denuclearisation following the completion of a policy review, but Pyongyang said Biden had made a "big blunder".

"His statement clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy toward the DPRK as it had been done by the US for over half a century," Kwon Jung Gun, a foreign ministry official, said in a statement released by the official KCNA news agency.

"The U.S.-claimed ‘diplomacy’ is a spurious signboard for covering up its hostile acts, and ‘deterrence’ touted by it is just a means for posing nuclear threats to the DPRK," Kwon added, using the official name of North Korea.

"Now that what the keynote of the US new DPRK policy has become clear, we will be compelled to press for corresponding measures." The White House said on Friday that its goal remains "the complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula".