North Norea won’t give up nukes: North Korea said on Saturday that it would not relinquish its nuclear weapons.
“The U.S. should not think about the denuclearisation on the peninsula before the world is denuclearised,” North Korean state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper said, according to Reuters.
Pyongyang on Thursday offered a list of conditions for talks with the United States and South Korea in a sign that the recent tensions could be put to an end. The conditions included the lifting of United Nations sanctions.
The state-run paper accused the U.S. of suggesting that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons.
“Our position is clear. Never dream of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula before denuclearization of the world is realized,” the paper added, according to the Yonhap News Agency.
Officials with the U.S., however, are still searching for more tangible signs that North Korea would halt its nuclear activities.
North Korea, which carried out its third nuclear test in February, said that nuclear weapons are its “treasured sword,” and they will never be given up.
Michael O'Hanlon, who heads foreign policy research at the Brookings Institution think tank, told the South China Morning Post that governments should try to limit North Korea’s nuclear program.
“If they really reactivate their reactor and expand whatever uranium enrichment capability they have and they go into the business of making nuclear weapons by the dozen for their own purposes or for sale, we have a whole different ball game,” he said.
As Reuters points out, North Korea often makes threats to get concessions from the U.S. and South Korea and repeats the same process later on.
