US Is Accountable for Rupture of Hanoi Summit Talks

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA on May 24, as regards the attempt of the United States to impute to the DPRK the cause for the rupture of the Hanoi DPRK-US summit talks:

As we have already stated, the underlying cause of the setback of the DPRK-US summit talks in Hanoi is the arbitrary and dishonest approacj taken by the US, insisting on a completely unrealizable method.

For the sake of building confidence, the main key to an alleviation of the DPRK-US hostile relations, we took crucial and meaningful measures of a strategic decision, including the discontinuation of nuclear test and test-fire of intercontinental ballistic missile, and we also took a broadminded step towards the realization of repatriation of the American POW/MIA remains.

However, the US did not respond to our goodwill measures in the same manner, and deliberately drove the talks to a rupture by merely claiming the unilateral disarmament of the DPRK.

This notwithstanding, the US attempts to ascribe the setback of the DPRK-US summit talks in Hanoi to a completely irrelevant issue and to impute the responsibility for the ruptured talks to us. We cannot but pay attention to such American ulterior intention.

We hereby make it clear once again that the US would not be able to move us one iota by that sort of thinking, and the more pronounced the US’s mistrust inand hostile acts towards the DPRK grow, the tougher our counteraction will become.

Unless the US puts aside the current method of calculation and comes forward with a new one, the DPRK-US dialogue will never be resumed and the prospect for resolving the nuclear issue will be gloomier to that extent.

The US would be well advised to squarely face up to reality and learn anew how to have dialogue and negotiations.