Oct. 9 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The spokesman for the United States National Security Council, John Kirby, has assured that his country remains prepared to talk with North Korea about a possible agreement for Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions, before recalling that Washington has troops on the peninsula trained to defend it from an escalation of hostilities.
“We want a verifiable and complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, and we have communicated this to the North Koreans,” said Kirby, also coordinator of strategic communications within the Council.
The spokesman regretted, however, and as a result of the latest North Korean ballistic tests, that its leader Kim Jong Un does not seem to have the intention of engaging in a dialogue.
“Kim has decided not to accept that offer. Quite the contrary: now he has improved his ballistic missile program. It is clear that he has not abandoned his ambitions for nuclear weapons,” he said in comments to ABC.
“That is why we must make sure that we have troops in the region and that we are trained to use them if necessary,” he stressed.
Kirby’s statements take place after the South Korean Army reported this Sunday the launch of two other short-range ballistic missiles that have left the North Korean east coast at dawn on Sunday.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff has placed the launch in Munchon, Gangwon province, at 01:48 and 01:58 local time.
North Korea, for its part, has defended its missile launches into the Sea of Japan as a planned self-defense measure in response to military threats to the country’s security from the United States.
“North Korea’s missile test launch is a regular and planned measure of self-defense to defend the country’s security and regional peace from direct military threats from the United States, which have lasted for more than half a century,” a spokesman said. of the National Aviation Administration (NAA) of the Asian country, according to the KCNA agency.
