North Korea calls Biden’s speech a ‘big blunder’

Seoul (dpa) – North Korea on Sunday accused US President Joe Biden of making a “big blunder” in a recent speech in which he called Pyongyang a security threat.

Biden said in his first address to a joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday that North Korea’s nuclear programme posed serious threats that would be dealt with “through diplomacy, as well as stern deterrence.”

North Korea lashed out at Biden, warning the United States will face “a very grave situation” in a series of statements published by state news outlet KCNA.

In one of the statements Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s department of US affairs, said that Biden’s speech “clearly reflects his intent to keep enforcing the hostile policy toward the DPRK as it had been done by the US for over half a century.”

Kwon said Washington was holding on to “outdated policy” from the Cold War-era and called Biden’s speech “a big blunder in the light of the present-day viewpoint.”

In a separate statement a Foreign Ministry spokesman accused Washington of insulting the dignity of North Korea’s leadership after the US State Department called out the “egregious human rights situation” in the country last week.

“The US has now insulted the dignity of our supreme leadership. This becomes an evident sign that it is girding itself up for an all-out showdown with [North Korea], and this is also a clear answer to how we should approach the new administration in the US,” the statement said.

Content retrieved from: https://www.dpa-international.com/topic/north-korea-calls-biden-speech-big-blunder-urn%3Anewsml%3Adpa.com%3A20090101%3A210502-99-436018.