Kim Yo Jong says North Korea has no need for US talks

Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Pyongyang has "no need to sit face to face" with Washington. Her statement, released on November 4 local time, makes a Trump-Kim meeting at this month's Asia summits look less likely. "It is our clear stand that we have no need to sit face to face with such unreliable and hostile persons who refuse to abandon their policy of confrontation while talking about dialogue," she said in remarks carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, according to AFP.abs-cbn.com

She did not rule out talks entirely. "The choice for peace includes dialogue of course, but this is not surely equated with national interests for us," she said, Yonhap reported. NK News reported that she called a US end to its "hostile policy" the basic precondition for resolving any issue.en.yna.co.kr+1

Binance hack and warning of response

Much of the statement focused on the FBI's finding that North Korea was behind the theft of more than $6 billion in cryptocurrency from Binance. She called the accusation "no more than a tip of iceberg that shows the essence of the U.S. hostile policy," Yonhap said. She also pointed to US-South Korean military drills, Washington's push for denuclearization and a State Department report on human trafficking as more evidence of hostility, according to Reuters via The Straits Times.straitstimes.com+1

She also warned of escalation. "It is natural that new records should be created in our reflective counteraction," she said, AFP reported. Hours after the statement, North Korea fired at least one projectile off its east coast. Bloomberg said it was the country's fourth weapons test in a week, and it came while President Donald Trump waited for the results of the midterm elections.bloomberg.com+1

Summit hopes fade

Trump said in October that he "may" meet Kim Jong Un during his trip to Asia this month, The Straits Times reported. He is due at the ASEAN summit in Manila on November 16 and then at the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China, which runs from November 17 to 19, IANS reported. A week after that remark, he said, "I'm not sure that anybody's asking for a meeting," the Korea Herald noted.ianslive.in+2

Five people familiar with the matter told Reuters that Washington had received no reply from Pyongyang about a summit. Ankit Panda of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace put the chance of a meeting at APEC below 10 percent, The Business Times reported. On October 31, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump would be open to talks if Kim was willing to address US and allied concerns, but that no meeting had been arranged, Dong-A Ilbo reported.businesstimes.com.sg+1

"To the hostile signals that the United States continuously sends, we do not know how to respond otherwise," Kim Yo Jong said, according to The Straits Times.straitstimes.com