North Korea says US must ‘completely eliminate’ its nuclear arsenal first as peace talks reach new low

RAEL’S COMMENT:

And he is absolutely right! The US should be the first to destroy its nuclear arsenal as it is the biggest in the world! And the US is the only country who DID use it against civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Statement from Pyongyang says denuclearisation must include any US weapons that threaten wider region, and suggests Washington should ‘study geography’

North Korea has said it will not give up its nuclear weapons until the US first “completely eliminates” its own arsenal in the region, a bombshell demand that threatens to derail peace talks.

In a statement issued by the official KCNA news agency, North Korea set out clearly for the first time what it sees as the definition of “complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula”, the vague goal agreed to by Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un at a summit in Singapore in June.

The US withdrew its tactical nuclear weapons from South Korea in the 1990s, but maintains an umbrella of weapons capable of defending South Korea and Japan.

Washington has already ruled out reducing this military presence as part of any deal. It suggested after Singapore that Mr Trump and Mr Kim had agreed that North Korea could give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for “security assurances” from the US.

But on Thursday North Korea accused the US of misleading the world over the outcomes of the June talks. It claims Pyongyang has always stuck to its old stance – that it needs nuclear weapons unless and until it no longer faces any American military threat.

“The United States must now recognise the accurate meaning of the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, and especially, must study geography,” the statement said.

“When we talk about the Korean Peninsula, it includes the territory of our republic and also the entire region of (South Korea) where the United States has placed its invasive force, including nuclear weapons. When we talk about the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, it means the removal of all sources of nuclear threat, not only from the South and North but also from areas neighbouring the Korean Peninsula,” the statement said.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/north-korea-us-talks-nuclear-weapons-eliminate-disarmament-trump-kim-jong-un-a8692031.html?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1pJB-REgLqtf4H8vsZtqN6X4E3r0YyTlQV8qodV2C14wuYOOWhqIozfxI#Echobox=1545376214