North Korea ready for both dialogue, confrontation

International Desk: North Korea's top diplomat said on Friday (Aug 23) that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was a "diehard toxin" who only complicates denuclearization talks and that Pyongyang was ready for both dialogue and standoff.

Working-level talks between the United States and North Korea have yet to restart since stalling after the failed second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi in February.

Trump and Kim met again in June at the inter-Korean border and agreed to reopen negotiations, but that has not happened as yet.

Since the summit Pyongyang has demanded Pompeo be replaced with a "more mature" person, while lauding the rapport built between the two leaders.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, who took part in the Hanoi summit along with Pompeo, called the chief US negotiator the "diehard toxin of the US diplomacy" that employs "hackneyed sanctions rhetoric".

Ri referred to Pompeo's remarks in recent press interviews that sanctions will be kept until North Korea takes concrete actions on denuclearization. _Agencies

risingbd/Dhaka/August 23, 2019/AKA