Tag: Koreans

(CNN)A North Korean official has lashed out at US Vice President Mike Pence and said Pyongyang is ready for a nuclear showdown if dialogue with the United States fails. Choe Son Hui, a vice-minister in the North Korean Foreign Ministry, said if the US continued on its current path, she would suggest to North Korea's leadership that they reconsider the planned summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Choe took particular issue with Pence's remarks about US National Security Adviser John Bolton, who said the US would look to the negotiations with Libya during the early 2000s when dealing with North Korea. "As the President made clear, this will only end like the Libya model ended if Kim Jong Un doesn't make a deal." When MacCallum said that some people may have seen Bolton's comments as a threat, Pence said "I think it's more of a fact." She noted that Libya's nuclear program was in its early stages when it came to the negotiating table, while North Korea has spent years developing its nuclear weapons. While representing the United States at the Winter Olympics in South Korea earlier this year, he brought along the father of Otto Warmbier, an American university student who was imprisoned in North Korea and died shortly after his return to the United States in a vegetative state. Trump and Kim's summit will be the the first meeting between a sitting US President and North Korean leader, but the North Koreans have expressed displeasure over recent comments by the United States and joint military exercises between Washington and Seoul. But a senior administration official involved in the planning process told CNN that Trump's team wants more high-level talks with Pyongyang before the summit. "Pyongyang is trying to shift the discussion away from immediate disarmament and economic benefits and toward a protracted exchange of security concessions," said Mount of the Federation of American Scientists.

Richard Engel reports on the protests in South Korea both for and against a war with the north that Donald Trump is inching closer to, and looks at how some Koreans are dealing with the very immediate threat of death…