North Korea ‘willing’ to talk to US after earlier slamming Trump’s sanctions

NORTH Korea is “very willing” to hold talks with the United States, its delegation to the Winter Olympics closing ceremony said overnight, according to Seoul’s presidential Blue House.

In a meeting with the South’s President Moon Jae-in, the North’s delegation “agreed that inter-Korea talks and North-US relations should improve together”, the Blue House said in a statement.

Pyongyang has frequently said it is willing to talk without preconditions, but Washington says it must first take concrete steps towards denuclearisation.

It comes as the rogue nation earlier slammed the latest US measures against it as an “act of war”, after US President Donald Trump announced the “heaviest sanctions ever” on the nuclear-armed regime.

The measures, which Washington says are aimed at forcing Pyongyang to roll back its banned nuclear and weapons programs, target more than 50 North Korea-linked shipping companies, vessels and trade businesses.

“As we have stated on numerous occasions, we will consider any type of blockade an act of war against us, and if US has indeed the guts to confront us in ‘rough’ manner, we will not necessarily take the trouble to stop it,” said a foreign ministry spokesman quoted by the official KCNA news agency.

It also vowed a retaliation if the US “really has the nerves” to confront the North in a “rough” manner.

Mr Trump warned on Friday that, if the latest sanctions don’t work, the US would “go to phase two” that “may be a very rough thing”, without elaborating.

In response, the North also vowed to “subdue the US in our own way” if provoked, saying “Trump is trying to change us with such sanctions and hostile remarks, which shows his ignorance about us”.

“We already have our own nuclear weapon — a treasured sword of justice to protect us from such threats from the US,” the foreign ministry said.

The comment came hours before the North’s senior delegation led by Kim Yong Chol, a black-listed military general, attended the closing ceremony of the South’s Winter Olympics, which was also be attended by Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

Officials from both Seoul and Washington say there will be no meeting between Kim Yong Chol and Ivanka Trump — who is travelling with Korea specialists from the US administration and White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

Kim Yo Jong’s trip at the start of the Games — the first visit to the South by a member of the North’s ruling dynasty since the Korean War ended in 1953 — made global headlines.---Courtesy news.com.au