By Heejin Kim
SEOUL, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said that while dialogue with Washington remains a path to peace, Pyongyang currently saw no need for talks and again denied it was behind the theft of more than $6 billion in crypto assets from Binance.
In a statement published by the official KCNA news agency on Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, who is a director of North Korea’s ruling party, said the FBI’s accusation against North Korea over the crypto heist showed “the essence of the US hostile policy” towards her country.
Her comments come amid speculation about a possible summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un later this month.
Kim Yo Jong also criticised joint US-South Korean military drills, Washington’s demand for denuclearisation, and a report by the US State Department on global human-trafficking situations that includes North Korea.
“We have already and repeatedly clarified that the US abandonment of its hostile policy toward the DPRK is a major premise and key to solving all problems,” she said, using the initials of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“It is our clear stand that we have no need to sit face to face with such unreliable and hostile persons who refuse to abandon their policy of confrontation.”
“To the hostile signals that the United States continuously sends, we do not know how to respond otherwise,” she said.
Kim added: “The choice for peace includes dialogue of course, but this is not surely equated with national interests for us.”
PRECONDITIONS FOR TALKS
Her statement was published hours before South Korea’s Defence Ministry said North Korea had fired an unidentified projectile toward the sea off its east coast.
North Korea has carried out a series of weapons tests this year, including the launch of a missile that flew more than 900 km (559 miles) as well as testing hypersonic missiles.
The latest launch also followed a North Korean media report that Kim Jong Un visited a naval shipyard building a destroyer and stressed the importance of a powerful naval force.
Trump said in August that he wanted to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year. Pyongyang has not responded to the offer.
A senior South Korean official told reporters last week that Seoul saw little chance of a Pyongyang-Washington summit for now.
Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in South Korea, said Kim Yo Jong was reiterating that an end to what Pyongyang calls Washington’s hostile policy was a precondition for talks.
“She also made it clear that there is no reason to sit down for dialogue with US under the current situation.”
Jeremy Chan, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, said Pyongyang would remain open to dialogue but on its terms.
“Pyongyang would be foolish to pass up the opportunity to leverage Trump’s hunger for a summit to extract as much as it can from the US, but that likely won’t come together by this month,” said Chan.
(Reporting by Heejin Kim and Brenda Goh; Editing by Franklin Paul, Sonali Paul and Ed Davies)
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