North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is reconsidering whether to continue with negotiations with the U.S. over his country’s nuclear weapons program, a top official in Kim’s government said Friday.
Reuters reported that North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui cast blame on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, for an atmosphere of distrust surrounding the negotiations during a press conference.
{mosads}Bolton and Pompeo “created the atmosphere of hostility and mistrust and, therefore, obstructed the constructive effort for negotiations between the supreme leaders of North Korea and the United States,” Choe accused, according to Reuters.
“I want to make it clear that the gangster-like stand of the U.S. will eventually put the situation in danger,” Choe added, according to Reuters and The Associated Press, though she added: “Personal relations between the two supreme leaders are still good and the chemistry is mysteriously wonderful.”
Further negotiations, Choe indicated, would come at the cost of U.S. concessions on sanctions or other issues.
“We have no intention to yield to the U.S. demands [at the Vietnam summit] in any form, nor are we willing to engage in negotiations of this kind,” she said, according to Reuters.
The statements from North Korea’s diplomat comes as the two sides left a summit last month in Hanoi, Vietnam, without reaching an agreement to pursue denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula or further relief from U.S. sanctions on the nation.
Trump told reporters at the White House last week that the U.S. relationship with North Korea remains productive and ongoing while appearing to warn Kim against restarting the country’s missile tests.
“Well, time will tell, but I have a feeling that our relationship with North Korea — Kim Jong Un and myself — Chairman Kim — I think it’s a very good one,” Trump said.
“I think it remains good. I would be surprised, in a negative way, if he did anything that was not per our understanding,” he added. “But we’ll see what happens.”