North Korea says it won't denuclearize unless US removes threat

Washington: FILE- In this combination of file photos, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on May 16, 2018, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a meeting with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in in Panmunjom, South Korea, on April 27, 2018. Ahead of a planned summit Tuesday, June 12, in Singapore between President Donald Trump and North Korean autocrat Kim Jong Un, there has been talk of complete denuclearization, North Korea has shut down (for now) its nuclear test site, and senior U.S. and North Korean officials have shuttled between Pyongyang and Washington for meetings with Kim and Trump. The top U.S. diplomat declared that “Chairman Kim shares the objectives with the American people” amid talk of a grand bargain that could see North Korean disarmament met with a massive influx of outside aid. AP/PTI(AP6_8_2018_000010B)

North Korea says it will never unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons unless the United States removes its nuclear threat first.

The statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on Thursday comes amid a deadlock in nuclear negotiations between the United States and North Korea.

It raises further doubts on whether leader Kim Jong Un will ever relinquish an arsenal he may see as his greatest guarantee of survival. Kim and President Donald Trump met June 5 in Singapore where they issued a vague goal for the "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula without describing when and how it would occur.

Follow-up talks have stalled with the North insisting that U.S.-led international sanctions against the country be removed first before any progress in denuclearization.