SEOUL, south korea — North Korea has told the United States that it is willing to impose a temporary moratorium on its nuclear tests if Washington scraps planned military drills with South Korea this year, the North’s official news agency said Saturday.
Washington called the linking of the military drills with a possible nuclear test “an implicit threat” but said it was open to dialogue with North Korea.
The U.S. has previously refused to cancel military drills with South Korea, even at times of high tensions, and has said the North must first demonstrate how sincere it is about nuclear disarmament before serious talks can resume.
The North’s reported proposal comes at a time of animosity between North Korea and the U.S. over a Sony movie depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The U.S. blames the North for crippling hacking attacks on Sony Entertainment and subsequently imposed new sanctions on the country, inviting an angry response from Pyongyang, which has denied responsibility for the cyberattacks.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the government proposed to the U.S. what it calls a “crucial step” to ease animosities and remove the danger of war, prompted by desires to pave the way for a reunification with South Korea this year, which marks the 70th anniversary of the rivals’ division.
“(The message) proposed the U.S. to contribute to easing tension on the Korean Peninsula by temporarily suspending joint military exercises in South Korea and its vicinity this year, and said that in this case, (North Korea) is ready to take such responsive step as temporarily suspending the nuclear test over which the U.S. is concerned,” KCNA’s report said. “Now is the time for the U.S. to make a bold decision for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.”
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Saturday said a new nuclear test would be a “clear violation of North Korea’s obligations under multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.”
“The DPRK statement that inappropriately links routine (U.S.-South Korean) exercises to the possibility of a nuclear test by North Korea is an implicit threat,” she said, using the abbreviation for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “We call on the DPRK to immediately cease all threats, reduce tensions and take the necessary steps toward denuclearization needed to resume credible negotiations.”
Pyongyang has called the annual U.S.-South Korean military drills a rehearsal for an invasion, although the allies have repeatedly said that the war games are defensive in nature and that they have no intentions of attacking the North. Analysts say the U.S.-South Korea drills have hurt the North’s economy because Pyongyang has spent precious resources to stage its own drills in response.
