North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the door remains shut for talks with the U.S. on winding down its atomic arsenal, setting the stage for renewed provocations by pledging to respond to what it saw as threats from Washington.
"The DPRK is not interested in any contact or dialogue with the U.S. as long as it pursues its hostile policy and confrontational line,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday, citing a ministry spokesperson as saying and referring to the country by its formal name.
Statements from the ministry are among North Korea’s highest form of communication with the outside world. The last time one came out in December, Pyongyang test-launched two short-range ballistic missiles about a day later. The comments from the spokesman come in the wake of a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to meet his counterpart in South Korea, where the nations announced plans to expand joint drills.