N. Korea renews demand U.S. scrap policy of hostility

SEOUL, Aug. 19 (Yonhap) -- Pyongyang on Saturday said that the United States is now left with only one option: abandon its hostile policy toward North Korea.

A researcher from the North Korean Academy of Science claimed in an online post that North Korea has been pushed to possess nuclear weapons due to pressure and coercion by preceding and incumbent U.S. administrations.

The researcher, named Kim Woong-cheol, urged Washington to withdraw its policy of hostility toward Pyongyang, while likening the confrontational relations between the U.S. and the North to the law of action and reaction.

"If action and reaction is nature's law of dynamics, the law of dynamics in the North Korea-U.S. relations is that the North's political and military responses will grow ever stronger as long as the U.S. heightens its provocations," Kim said in a contribution to the North's propaganda website DPRK Today. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

He cited instances of the previous U.S. administrations led by George Bush and Barack Obama.

"Bush's coercion and tyranny pushed DPRK to possess nuclear weapons. Then Obama's policy (of hostility) forced DPRK to advance its rocket technology, and miniaturize and diversity its nuclear warheads. Thus, it's never an accident for the U.S. to exaggerate that threats to its security have amplified," Kim insisted.

He went on to assert that President Donald Trump's "reckless pressure" has rather resulted in advertising the North as a global powerhouse of nuclear weapons and rockets.

"By destiny, the withdrawal of the anti-North Korea policy is the only option left for the U.S., particularly amid the ongoing escalation of confrontation between the two countries," Kim said.

Tensions between the North and the U.S. had heightened amid exchanges of bellicose rhetoric between Trump and the North Korean leadership.

Pyongyang had threatened to fire four ballistic missiles toward the waters off the U.S. territory of Guam, but it backed off its threat Tuesday after key U.S. officials dismissed the risk of imminent war with the North.

ycm@yna.co.kr
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