By Yi Whan-woo
The United States has remained cautious about possible talks between the two Koreas after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his willingness to send a delegation to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics during his New Year address Monday.
Kim’s rare offering of an olive branch prompted South Korea to propose high-level talks with the North, amid U.S.-led sanctions and pressure against the repressive state.
But Kim warned Washington by underscoring a “nuclear button on his desk” capable of launching missiles at the U.S.
President Donald Trump, the White House, Department of State and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley voiced skepticism about Kim’s intentions although they did not oppose South Korea’s move to resume inter-Korean dialogue.
“Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not -- we will see!” Trump tweeted Tuesday, amid speculation that Kim’s peace overture was intended to ease his regime’s isolation.
Trump referred to dramatic escapes of at least two North Korean soldiers across the Demilitarized Zone into the South recently.
“Sanctions and ‘other’ pressures are beginning to have a big impact on North Korea. Soldiers are dangerously fleeing to South Korea. Rocket man now wants to talk to South Korea for first time,” he wrote.
In a separate tweet later Tuesday, Trump ratcheted up his rhetoric on Pyongyang’s possible nuclear provocations in response to Kim’s “nuclear button” comment.
“Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger and more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders reiterated Washington’s stance that it would continue to put “maximum pressure” on North Korea and that the South shares the same goal.
Department of State spokeswoman Heather Nauert said it was up to South Korea to decide who it talks to.
She added, though: “We are very skeptical of Kim Jong-un's sincerity in sitting down and having talks.”
Nauert speculated that Pyongyang might be “trying to drive a wedge of some sort between Washington and Seoul.”
Citing media reports, Haley warned North Korea against staging another ballistic missile test and vowed to “bring even tougher measures to bear” against the reclusive state if that happened.
She said Washington would not take any talks between the two Koreas seriously if they did not move toward getting Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.
“North Korea can talk to anyone they want, but the U.S. is not going to recognize or acknowledge it until they agree to ban the nuclear weapons that they have,” she said.
“We consider this to be a very reckless regime. We don’t think we need a Band-Aid, and we don't think we need to smile and take a picture.”