This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
North Korea condemned U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for calling it a “rogue state” in its first direct criticism of the Trump administration, about a week after the U.S. president suggested he might try to revive contacts with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Rubio referred to North Korea and Iran as “rogue states” in a Jan. 30 interview while discussing foreign policy challenges. He emphasized the importance of addressing the threats posed by those countries, highlighting their destabilizing activities and the need for a robust U.S. response.
A North Korea foreign ministry spokesperson dismissed Rubio’s comments and said U.S. hostility was incessant.
“It is necessary to mention how absurd and illogical it is that the most depraved state in the world brands another country a rogue state,” the North Korean spokesperson said, as cited by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, on Monday.
“The hostile words and deeds of the person who is in charge of the U.S. foreign policy served as an occasion of confirming once again the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK which remains unchanged.
“We will never tolerate any provocation of the U.S., which has always been hostile to the DPRK and will be hostile to it in the future, too, but will take tough counteraction corresponding to it as usual.”
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, is North Korea’s official name.
It marked the North’s first public criticism of the new U.S. administration since Donald Trump returned to the White House last month.
Trump launched an unprecedented diplomatic effort on North Korea during his first term, meeting Kim three times, but in the end making no progress on persuading him to give up his nuclear and missile programmes in exchange for relief on sanctions.
Trump mentioned his effort on North Korea during his presidential campaign but it had until Monday refrained from making direct comments about him or his government.
South Korea’s unification ministry said the North was responding quickly to measures and remarks from the new Trump administration, following a pledge on the “toughest” response to the U.S. in a key party meeting at the end of last year.
“To be clear, the one that undermines international rules and threatens the peace of the international community is North Korea itself,” said the South Korean ministry spokesperson, Koo Byoung-sam.
“South Korea, the U.S. and the international community share the goal of completely denuclearizing North Korea.”
North Korea’s remarks came about a week after Trump was asked in an interview if he planned to “reach out” to the North Korean leader.
“I will, yeah. He liked me,” Trump said.
In a sign that Trump might intend to revive his diplomatic effort on North Korea, he has picked as a senior White House official an aide, William Beau Harrison, who was involved in planning summits with Kim in Singapore in 2018 and in Vietnam in 2019.
Trump met Kim for a third time on the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas later in 2019 when Trump became the first U.S. president to set foot on North Korean soil.
But the meetings led to no progress on efforts to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs.
