North Korea blasts US attempt to initiate contact as 'cheap trick'
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends the first day of the 8th Congress of the Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea
North Korea on Thursdayblasted the recent attempt made by theUnited States toinitiate contact asa "cheap trick" that would never be answered until Washington dropped hostile policies.
The statement by Choe Son Hui, the first vice minister of foreign affairs forNorthKorea, is the first formal rejection of tentative approaches by the new USadministration under President Joe Biden, who took office in January.
It came as USSecretary of State Antony Blinken was visiting SouthKoreaalongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in a first overseas trip by top-level members of Biden's administration.
The attempts at contact were made by sending e-mails and telephone messages via various routes, including by a third country, Choe said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.
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She called the attempts at contact a "cheap trick" for gaining time and building up public opinion.
"What has been heard from the USsince the emergence of the new regime is only lunatic theory of 'threat fromNorthKorea' and groundless rhetoric about 'complete denuclearisation,' Choe said.
The White House said earlier this month it had reached out toNorthKorea, but received no response, and did not elaborate.
Speaking in Seoul on Wednesday, Blinken accusedNorthKoreaof committing "systemic and widespread abuses" against its own people and said the United States and its allies were committed to the denuclearisation ofNorthKorea.
Blinken and Austin are due to continue meetings with SouthKorean leaders on Thursday, before flying to Alaska for the administration's first talks with Chinese officials, where theNorthKoreastandoff is expected to be discussed.
Talks aimed at reducing tensions withNorthKoreaand persuading it to give up its arsenal of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles have been stalled since 2019, after a series of historic summits between then-USPresident Donald Trump andNorthKorean leader Kim Jong Un.
Choe criticized the United States for continuing military drills, and for maintaining sanctions aimed at pressuring Pyongyang.
No dialogue would be possible until the United States rolled back its hostile policy towardNorthKoreaand both parties were able to exchange words on an equal basis, she said.