Monitoring desk
\nSEOUL
\nNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed on Tuesday his resolve to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula but warned he may have to take an alternative path if the United States continued to force Pyongyang into unilateral action.
\nIn his New Year address, Kim said he was willing to meet US President Donald Trump again at any time to achieve denuclearisation, and urged Washington to take unspecified corresponding action to speed up the stalled process.
\nNorth Korea, however, would have \u201cno option but to explore a new path in order to protect our sovereignty\u201d if the United States \u201cmiscalculates our people\u2019s patience, forces something upon us and pursues sanctions and pressure without keeping a promise it made in front of the world,\u201d Kim said in his nationally televised address.
\nThe comments are likely to fuel growing scepticism over whether Pyongyang intends to give up the nuclear weapons programme that it has long considered essential to its security.
\nKim and Trump vowed to work towards denuclearisation and build a \u201clasting and stable\u201d peace regime at their landmark summit in Singapore in June, but little progress has been made since and satellite images have indicated continued activity at North Korea\u2019s nuclear and missile facilities.
\nPyongyang has demanded Washington lift sanctions and declare an official end to the 1950-53 Korean War in response to its initial, unilateral steps toward denuclearisation, including dismantling its only known nuclear testing site and a key missile engine facility.
\nUS officials say those steps can be easily reversed and have not been verified, and Washington has slapped additional economic sanctions on the impoverished country. Washington halted some large-scale military exercises with Seoul, although smaller drills continued.
\nKim called for South Korea to \u201ccompletely stop\u201d joint military drills with the United States involving strategic assets, while multilateral negotiations should be pursued to build a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.
\n\u201cNow that North and South Korea decided to take the path of peace and prosperity, we insist that joint military exercises with outside forces should no longer be allowed and deployment of war equipment such as outside strategic assets should be completely stopped,\u201d Kim said.
\nAnalysts said Kim\u2019s message sent clear signals that North Korea is willing to stay in talks with Washington and Seoul this year \u2014 but on its own terms.
\n\u201cNorth Korea seems determined in 2019 to receive some sort of sanctions relief … The challenge, however, is will Team Trump be willing to back away from its position of zero sanctions relief?\u201d said Harry J Kazianis at the Washington-based Centre for the National Interest.
\n\u201cKim\u2019s remarks seem to suggest his patience with America is wearing thin.\u201d
\nThe televised speech is closely watched as a rare public appearance for the young leader, setting the tone for his domestic and foreign policies for the year ahead.
\nAfter racing toward the goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States in 2017, Kim used last year\u2019s speech to call for defusing tensions and improving ties with the South, and a shift in focus toward economic development.
\nThat resulted in a dramatic detente last year, including three summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and the historic meeting with Trump in June.
\nIn this year\u2019s 30-minute speech, Kim spent more than 20 minutes highlighting his new focus on the economy.
\nKim said inter-Korean relations have now entered a \u201ccompletely new phase\u201d, and he is willing to resume key joint economic projects with the South \u2014 the factory park in Kaesong and tours to Mt Kumgang \u2014 without conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Monitoring desk SEOUL North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reaffirmed on Tuesday his resolve to completely denuclearize the Korean Peninsula but warned he may have to take an alternative path if the United States continued to force Pyongyang into unilateral action. In his New Year address, Kim said he was willing to meet US President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43448,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n