North Korea is expected to remain largely impervious to Western diplomatic overtures for the foreseeable future as it rails against its rivals’ “hostile” policies.
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On Tuesday, North Korean state media denounced last month’s summit between US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung as proof of the “confrontational will” of its adversaries to “remain hostile … to the end”.
The North was taken aback by the outcomes of the Trump–Lee summit, according to Professor Cho Han-bum of the Korea Institute for National Unification.
“The approvals for nuclear-propulsion submarines and the enrichment of spent fuel took Pyongyang by surprise,” he told This Week in Asia. “These projects would seriously undermine its superiority in asymmetrical force over the South.”
Pyongyang’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday denounced US approval of South Korea’s nuclear-powered submarine programme, warning of a “nuclear domino” effect igniting a “hot arms race” in the region.
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