The North Korean regime released a second statement Tuesday evening after pulling out of a meeting with South Korea and threatening to pull the plug on the historic meeting planned with President Donald Trump.
A senior North Korean official said that the regime was not interested in "unilaterally" denuclearizing, according to Yonhap News Agency, the largest South Korean news organization.
An English translation of Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan's statement was released Tuesday.
The statement lauded North Korea's efforts to seek peace, but added, "prior to the DPRK-U.S. summit, unbridled remarks provoking the other side of dialogue are recklessly made in the U.S. and I am totally disappointed as these constitute extremely unjust behavior."
"High-ranking officials of the White House and the Department of State including Bolton," the statement continued, "White House national security adviser, are letting loose the assertions of so-called Libya mode of nuclear abandonment, 'complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization,' 'total decommissioning of nuclear weapons, missiles, biochemical weapons.' etc., while talking about formula of 'abandoning nuclear weapons first, compensating afterwards.'"
"I cannot suppress indignation at such moves of the U.S., and harbor doubt that the U.S. sincerity for improved DPRK-U.S. relations through sound dialogue and negotiations," he added.
"World knows too well that our country is neither Libya nor Iraq which have met miserable fate," the statement said.
"We shed light on the quality of Bolton already in the past and we do not hide our feeling of repugnance towards him," he explained.
"If President Trump follows in the footsteps of his predecessors," the statement concluded later, "he will be recorded as more tragic and unsuccessful president than his predecessors, far from his initial ambition to make unprecedented success."
South Korea responded to an earlier statement from North Korea that objected to military exercises being jointly conducted by the United States and South Korea. The officials indicated that they would continue the drills despite objections and the warning from their northern neighbors.
Carlos Garcia
Staff Writer