The United States is open to talks with North Korea, but only to convey the U.S. stance that “the most tyrannical and oppressive regime on the planet” must give up its nuclear weapons, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday, APA reports quoting Reuters.
Pence told the Axios news outlet in an interview the United States would continue to intensify diplomatic and economic pressure on North Korea and that the sanctions would not be lifted until it abandoned its weapons programs.
“We want to make sure North Korea understands us, and if there’s an opportunity for talks that can communicate the fixed policy of the United States of America to them, the president has made it clear he always believes in talking. But talking is not negotiation – talking is understanding one another,” he said.
Pence spoke after attending the Winter Olympics in South Korea last week, at which he avoided contact with a North Korean delegation that held talks with the South Korean leadership.
Pence was widely seen as having been outplayed by a “charm offensive” by the North Korean delegation, which included North Korea leader Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong.
Pence said he did not greet the delegation given that North Korea’s was “the most tyrannical and oppressive regime on the planet.”
”I didn’t avoid the dictator’s sister, but I did ignore her,“ he said. ”I didn’t believe it was proper for the United States of America to give any countenance or attention in that forum to someone who is not merely the sister of the dictator, but is the leader of the propaganda effort.”
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