North Korea maintains war rhetoric despite Kim Jong-un's invitation to Donald Trump for dialogue

Seoul: Pyongyang on Saturday kept up its usual war rhetoric against Washington in its official media, despite Kim Jong-un’s invitation to the US president Donald Trump for a meeting, which has not been mentioned yet in any North Korean state media outlet. [caption id=“attachment_4281549” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. AP[/caption] Official North Korean daily, Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling Workers’ Party carried an opinion piece which lashed out at the latest US sanctions and said the country would not bow down to pressure by Washington, Efe News reported. The article said that North Korea would not let the US “determine good and evil” according to their leader and “trample upon justice and truth”. The piece also said that the latest sanctions, announced by Washington on 7 March, against the regime for the alleged use of chemical weapons in 2017 to assassinate Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of Kim Jong-un, were “very dangerous” and “might provoke a war”. The text further said that Pyongyang would not bow down to the military power, sanctions and blockades of Washington. No North Korean media outlet has reported the announcement made by the South Korean delegation that met Kim in Pyongyang this week, which said that the North Korean leader had offered to hold a meeting about denuclearisation with Trump. Although Trump almost immediately accepted the offer to hold a meeting in May, the White House on Friday tried to tone down the hype and said that the meeting would not take place without “concrete actions” by Pyongyang that prove its will to abandon nuclear arms. If the encounter materialises, it would be the first meeting between leaders of North Korea and the US after almost 70 years of confrontation that began with the Korean War (1950-53) and 25 years of failed negotiations and tensions due to Pyongyang’s nuclear program.