SEOUL, South Korea — A senior North Korean diplomat on Saturday berated Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over his comments describing North Korean behavior as “rogue” and warned that Pyongyang’s hopes for talks with Washington are fading.
In a statement carried by state media, North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui said Pompeo’s “thoughtless” comments increased North Korean people’s animosity toward Americans and made it harder for working-level nuclear dialogue between the countries to resume.
North Korea is extremely sensitive to outside criticism about its authoritarian leadership. It has also repeatedly expressed displeasure about a months-long stalemate in negotiations and ramped up testing of short-range ballistic missiles and rocket artillery in recent weeks in an apparent effort to build bargaining leverage.
“Our expectations of dialogue with the U.S. are gradually disappearing and we are being pushed to re-examine all the measures we have taken so far,” Choe said in the statement, carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA.
“We are very curious about the background of the American top diplomat’s thoughtless remarks and we will watch what calculations he has,” she said. “The U.S. had better not put any longer our patience to the test with such remarks irritating us if it doesn’t want to have bitter regrets afterward.”
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North Korea berates Pompeo, says hopes for talks fadinghttps://t.co/h83q8Q3Ck1
— POLITICO (@politico) August 31, 2019
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