N. Korea warns US could miss 'rare historic opportunity' if swayed by skeptics

North Korea's official news agency on Sunday warned the United States of missing a "rare historic opportunity" if it fails to achieve a positive outcome in the ongoing nuclear talks, three days ahead of a second summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Denouncing US Democrats and other skeptics for disrupting the negotiations on "groundless stories and misinformation," the Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary that the Trump administration should not forget "last year's lesson when it plunged the bilateral negotiations into a stalemate, being swayed by the opponent forces."

 

The commentary came one day after the North's leader left Pyongyang for his second meeting with Trump set for Wednesday and Thursday in Hanoi.

The two leaders first met in Singapore last June, but their negotiations stalled for months over Pyongyang's demand for sanctions relief and Washington's insistence on keeping sanctions in place until the North's denuclearization.

"If the present US administration reads others' faces, lending an ear to others, it may face the shattered dream of the improvement of the relations with the DPRK and world peace and miss the rare historic opportunity," the commentary said. DPRK is the acronym for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Last month, US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told Congress that he believes it is unlikely the North will completely abandon its nuclear weapons program because Pyongyang's leaders view it as critical to regime survival.

Taking note of such skeptical views from the US intelligence community, the commentary said it would be "as foolhardy as expecting to see a chicken turning into a phoenix to expect proper comment from the US intelligence agencies."

The commentary denied suspicions that the North has developed its long-range missile program, kept up nuclear fuel production or produced more nuclear materials amid the ongoing negotiations.

The commentary claimed that the US skeptics' intention is to "mar" the present administration's foreign policy and take political power back.

"Throughout the US history, no example can be found by which the US regimes tried to properly settle the DPRK-US relations," the commentary said.

"If the upcoming DPRK-US negotiations end without results as wished by the opponent forces, the US people will never be cleared of the security threats that threw them into panic and then responsibility will be placed on those due," it added. 

(Yonhap)