North Korean leader Kim Jong-un lashed out at the “vicious” sanctions regime against his country, in the latest sign of his frustration with the pace of peace talks with the Trump administration, Bloomberg reported.
Kim leveled some of his most blunt criticism yet of the sanctions restricting the flow of goods and capital to his country while visiting a construction site in a northeastern coastal city of Wonsan, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency. Limits on trade and travel had put North Korea’s attempts to develop the area into a regional tourist hub in a “difficult and tense situation.”
“The hostile forces are foolishly keen on vicious sanctions to stand in our way toward promotion of people’s well-being and development and to lead us to change and submission. They will be made to clearly see over time how our country that has built its own strength hundreds of times defying hardship,” Kim said.
The Trump administration says Kim must take more concrete steps toward giving up his nuclear arsenal before getting sanctions relief, including 10 rounds of United Nations penalties and a raft of measures by the U.S. and its allies.
Separately, a commentary published on North Korea’s Uriminzokkiri news site specifically urged South Korea to lift the so-called May 24 sanctions, which among other things restrict the country’s citizens and companies from traveling and investing north of the border. South Korean President Moon Jae-in last month walked back a suggestion that the sanctions might be repealed after a rebuke from Trump.
Meanwhile, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Thursday that Kim Jong-un will “soon” visit Seoul as part of a flurry of high-profile diplomacy aimed at ridding North Korea of its nuclear weapons, TIME informed.
During a speech before parliament, Moon said that a second North Korea-U.S. summit is “near at hand” and that Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit North Korea soon. Moon also said he expected Kim to visit Russia soon and that Kim may meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Moon has previously said that Kim told him he would visit Seoul within this year when the leaders met in Pyongyang in September. South Korea’s presidential office said later on Thursday that it had nothing to add to Moon’s speech about Kim’s trip. His comments were in line with previous statements, the Blue House said, suggesting that Moon is determined to push ahead with diplomacy to resolve the nuclear issue.
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