Stephen Lendman

America needs enemies to advance its imperium - North Korea its favorite East Asian punching bag for nearly 70 years.

Truman’s war never ended. Pyongyang fears America for good reason. It sees its nuclear and ballistic missile deterrents as its best defense against another US imperial war. It won’t relinquish them as long as Washington remains hostile.

According to a transcript AP News obtained of a Tuesday conversation between its deputy UN ambassador Kim In Ryong and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the DPRK won’t negotiate away its key deterrent as long as Trump administration belligerence remains a significant risk.

Guterres urged “dial(ing) down the rhetoric and…dial(ing) up diplomacy,” warning about heightened tensions, risking unthinkable war on the peninsula.

Ambassador Kim said Kim Jong-un ended talk of firing ballistic missiles close to Guam - something he likely didn’t intend doing in the first place. It would be foolish to escalate tensions more than already.

DPRK leader Kim said “US imperialists put their own necks into the noose through their reckless military confrontation racket, adding that he would watch a little longer the conduct of the foolish and stupid Yankees.”

Ambassador Kim reiterated his demand for Washington to stop its “arrogant provocation (and) extremely dangerous actions around the Korean Peninsula,” including deploying “huge nuclear strategic equipment.”

“In order to defuse the tensions and prevent the dangerous military conflict on the Korean Peninsula, it is necessary for the US to make a proper option first and show it in action.”

Pyongyang then is willing to reciprocate by negotiating its nuclear and ballistic missile programs - wanting them only for defense against feared US aggression, the most effective way it has to prevent it.

Kim blasted tough new Security Council sanctions, calling them “more heinous that ever, placing a total ban on even normal trade and economic exchanges - including prohibiting exports of coal, iron, lead and seafood.

“As long as US hostile policy and nuclear threat continue, the DPRK, no matter who may say what, will never place its self-defensive nuclear deterrence on the negotiation table or flinch an inch from the road chosen by itself, the road of bolstering up the state nuclear force,” ambassador Kim explained.

Pyongyang wanted rapprochement with the West for decades. Washington seeks confrontation over diplomacy - risking possible war now or later.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

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My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."