Kim Jong-Un Warns Of Re-Escalation If US Does Not Deliver On Promise Of Lifting UNSC Sanctions

Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un has indicated in his New Year speech that the country may change direction on the diplomatic rapprochement which has been initiated with the United States and South Korea if the former does not make good on its promise of lifting sanctions, reports The Tribune.

Diplomatic headway was first made in cooling off tensions with the nuclear-armed pariah state about 12 months ago under the leadership of President Donald Trump.

“If the US does not keep its promise made in front of the whole world...and insists on sanctions and pressures on our republic, we may be left with no choice but to consider a new way to safeguard our sovereignty and interests,” Kim stated.

He was referring to a summit in Singapore in June where he met with Trump and conducted ‘fruitful talks’.

At the summit, the two leaders had signed a somewhat ambiguously framed pledge to pursue denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, but the two countries have often disagreed since then on what that exactly entails.

North Korea is under heavy pressure due to United Nations Security Council sanctions stemming from its controversial nuclear weapons programme, under which it has conducted multiple atomic tests and also experimented with missiles capable of reaching the whole of the American mainland.

Kim stated that he was willing to hold talks with Trump again in the future to reach results that would be appreciated by the international community.

But he warned against any joint military exercises between the US and South Korea, which were stopped for the most part after the summit at Singapore.