The U.S. must establish “objective conditions and an environment” for the resumption of deadlocked nuclear negotiations with North Korea and stop staging the ROK-U.S. joint drills, an influential Tokyo-based pro-North Korea outlet said on Tuesday.

In a commentary, the Choson Sinbo  — run by the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) — said the related U.S. ministries, including the White House and the State and Defense Departments, should “intently and carefully listen to the warning” issued by the DPRK foreign ministry on July 16.

The DPRK Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) warned that DPRK-U.S. working-level negotiations would be affected if the ROK and the U.S. go ahead with the Dong Maeng 19-2 joint drills, an alternative to the now-terminated Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) exercise.

“The DPRK side must have a lot to say about [the situation where] the U.S. did not unilaterally fulfill its promise,” the Choson Sinbo said, denouncing Washington for conducting the scaled-down Dong Maeng 19-1 military drills in March as a replacement for the annual Key Resolve exercise.

The Choson Sinbo said the warning was not merely the “repetition of the general principles that ‘dialogue and war drills cannot be compatible.'”

“The premise of confidence-building — which is the pivotal point in advancing the DPRK-U.S. relations — has greatly faltered,” the newspaper said in the commentary written by Kim Ji Yong.

“If the President’s commitment to the suspension of the joint military exercises is not fulfilled, there is no guarantee that the right trajectory of the DPRK-U.S. working-level negotiations, that both sides confirmed on the occasion of the DPRK-U.S. summit meeting in Panmunjom (June 30), will be maintained.”

The Choson Sinbo continued that the fact that the issue was raised at the meeting, also attended by foreign minister Ri Yong Ho and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, “shows how much the DPRK considers the matter as significant, ” adding that Washington “confirmed the suspension of drills once again.”

“If the U.S. does not fix its habit of making provocations… and adheres to its war racket targeting the DPRK, the confrontational atmosphere — which contradicts the resumption of dialogue agreed at the summit meeting in Panmunjom — will only be heightened.”

The media urged the U.S. to create the right circumstances to resume nuclear talks, explaining that issues including “measures to make a new breakthrough in the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and DPRK-U.S. relations will be discussed if DPRK-U.S. working-level negotiations proceed.”

“Various public opinions on holding DPRK-U.S. working-level negotiations are rife,” the Choson Sinbo said.

“Above all, the U.S. must establish objective conditions and an environment in which talks for denuclearization can be held,” it continued.

“And [the U.S. must] come forward with a practical plan for negotiations — which the DPRK can accept — based on this (the established conditions and environment).”

DEFINITION OF DENUCLEARIZATION OF THE PENINSULA 

The Choson Sinbo reiterated that the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is not the “unilateral nuclear dismantlement of the DPRK.”

“When making geographical reference to the Korean peninsula, this includes the territory of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as well as the South Korean area in which invading forces, including U.S. nuclear weapons, are deployed,” it said.

“When we refer to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, we mean eliminating all nuclear threat factors not only from within the North and South Korean domains but also from the surrounding areas targeting the Korean peninsula.”

The media said: “This is the perception of the DPRK.”

The pro-Pyongyang newspaper said that the country will never accept the U.S. proposal to resume nuclear talks under the current circumstances, pointing in particular to a statement issued by the director general of the Department of American Affairs of the DPRK MFA Kwon Jong Gun on April 18.

Kwon said that the U.S. “should get rid of the root cause that pushed us into becoming a nuclear weapons state and the obstacles preventing the denuclearization by its own hand by the end of this year.”

“The DPRK attempts to resolve the nuclear issue in this way,” the Choson Sinbo said.

“Although our counterpart requests the resumption of dialogue, it is not likely at all that the DPRK will accept it in a situation where the U.S. — which is the world’s largest nuclear weapons state — carries out provocative war exercises with the South Korean authorities.”

WARNING AGAINST U.S. 

The Choson Sinbo said Pyongyang’s stance of “treating good-will with good-will and responding to firmness with ultra-firmness” remains unchanged.

Repeating previous rhetoric made by North Korean media, the Choson Sinbo said that the “joint military exercise — which is in accordance with the operational plan of invading North Korea — is a dangerous war gamble.”

“The DPRK cannot help but respond to it by mobilizing self-defense forces,” it said.

“Meanwhile, the U.S allows pre-emptive attacks during the drills if it judges that there is a ‘sign of a North Korean attack,’ and therefore the risk that friction and clashing in a limited area will expand all-encompassingly exists during this period.”

If Washington does not terminate its joint military drills with Seoul, the Choson Sinbo suggested the possibility that Pyongyang may retract its decision to suspend nuclear and missile tests.

“The DPRK’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles are forces that deter it (war),” the newspaper said. “If the danger of nuclear war is not diminished but rather increases, [the DPRK] will have no choice but to constantly strengthen its power.”

The Choson Sinbo also repeated that the discontinuation of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests is not a “legal document inscribed on paper,” pointing to a statement issued by the DPRK MFA on July 16.

Additionally, the newspaper claimed that the DPRK side “expressed its will to provide a commitment to suspending nuclear tests and test launches of intercontinental ballistic rockets in the format of a document to allay U.S. concerns” at the no-deal second DPRK-U.S. summit held in Hanoi.

Edited by James Fretwell 

Featured Image: U.S. State Department