President Joe Biden willing to meet North Korean dictator "without preconditions"
In what would be a stunning move, President Joe Biden is seeking to meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un "without preconditions."
That's according to an article published on Friday in the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, which cited recent comments made by White House national security spokesman John Kirby.
Kirby: Offer to meet is "on the table"
"They have not responded positively to that offer, but it’s still on the table. We are willing to sit down and negotiate without preconditions," Kirby was quoted as saying.
"But absent that, and thus far he has shown no interest in that, we’ve got to make sure that we are ready in every other respect to defend our national security interests and those of our Korean and Japanese allies," the former rear admiral continued.
"That means putting more capability in the region which we have, and we will certainly consider doing that again in the future if we have to," he stressed.
Kirby went on to acknowledge that "there could be some sort of provocative action, but we just don’t know what that’s going to look like and it wouldn’t be a good use of our time in worrying too much about that."
Tensions over expected missile launch and defection of U.S. soldier
The Post pointed to allegations from South Korea's spy agency that North Korea is planning to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The launch is expected to coincide with a scheduled trilateral summit between the United States, Japan, and South Korea.
Another issue is the defection of 23-year-old Army Private 2nd Class Travis King, someone whom the New York Post reported had been arrested for multiple crimes while he was stationed in South Korea.
A tweet from United Nations Command put out on July 18 explained that King ran across the border during a tour of the Joint Security Area (JSA).
A U.S. National on a JSA orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). We believe he is currently in DPRK custody and are working with our KPA counterparts to resolve this incident. pic.twitter.com/a6amvnJTuY
— United Nations Command 유엔군사령부/유엔사 (@UN_Command) July 18, 2023
North Korea claims King is seeking refuge from racism
Reuters revealed on Wednesday that North Korea released a statement claiming King has requested refuge in North Korea from American racism.
North Korea concluded that Travis King wants refuge there or in another country because of 'inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination' in the US and the military, state media said in Pyongyang's first public acknowledgement of King's crossing https://t.co/If0s55RLrk pic.twitter.com/NeWKkGTILm
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 16, 2023
"During the investigation, Travis King confessed that he had decided to come over to the DPRK as he harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army," North Korea's state news agency was quoted as saying.
