N Korea warns US: Our patience running out, Singapore deal at risk

North Korea warns the US that the agreement the two sides reached in Singapore last year could be at risk if Washington keeps putting undue pressure on Pyongyang to make it take unilateral measures towards the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

An unnamed North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman complained in a statement on Tuesday about Washington’s refusal to drop the policy of “only insisting on our unilateral surrender of nuclear weapons” a year after US President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un signed the agreement during their first summit in Singapore in June 2018.

“The US would be well-advised to change its current method of calculation and respond to our request as soon as possible. There is a limit to our patience,” the official said in the statement, which was carried by the North’s official KCNA news agency.

Under that agreement, the US and the North Korea agreed to work for peace on the Korean Peninsula and address prisoners of war (POWs) and missing in action (MIA) cases from the 1950s Korean war, in which the US was on South Korea’s side.

North Korea also reaffirmed its commitment to working “towards complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

PressTV-North Korea, US sign document after historic summit

After signing the document with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un on Singapore’s Sentosa Island, US President Donald Trump said denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula would begin “very quickly.”

In line with the deal, Pyongyang took several unilateral measures towards denuclearization, including demolishing a nuclear test site and suspending its missile and nuclear tests, due to which the North has been the target of harsh unilateral US sanctions besides UN bans.

The diplomatic process, however, made little progress, mainly because Washington refused to lift its harsh sanctions on North Korea.

The North Korean official further warned that if the US does not come up with something new “before it is too late,” the document would just turn out to be a “mere blank sheet of paper.”

A second summit between Kim and Trump in Vietnam collapsed in February over differences on how far Pyongyang was willing to limit its nuclear program and the degree of US eagerness to ease sanctions.

The North announced in late May that it was suspending talks with the US over its nuclear and missile programs until Washington changes its zero-sum approach toward Pyongyang, blaming the breakdown of talks in Vietnam on America’s “arbitrary and dishonest position.”

PressTV-North Korea's Kim orders 'modernization' of missile factory

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un calls for a “higher modernization plan” for the country's key ballistic missile facility during a visit to the a factory.

The latest statement came after the KCNA reported on Saturday that the North Korean leader had ordered a “higher modernization plan” for the country's main ballistic missile factory during a visit to several facilities and factories.

Last month, the North also conducted a number of short-range missile tests in the course of several days, marking the first such launches since 2017.

Read more:

• Trump says he is considering third North Korea summit
• North Korea accuses US of 'evil ambition' in talks
• North Korea's new missiles surprise experts, alarm US
• Trump voices confidence in North Korea deal, 'great' Russia ties
• North’s Kim says US must stop ‘way of calculation’, gives deadline

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