North Korea state media urges US to drop sanctions - Reuters

According to Reuters, North Korean state media urged the US to drop sanctions on Pyongyang, citing they had displayed their commitment towards denuclearization and improving ties with America.

Key Highlights:

The North’s state media accused Washington of “acting opposite” to its plan to improve ties, despite Pyongyang making goodwill gestures, including a moratorium on nuclear and missile tests, the dismantling of a nuclear site, and the return of the remains of U.S. soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.

Such “practical measures” had already deprived U.N. Security Council resolutions of their reason for being, said the Rodong Sinmun, a ruling Workers’ Party mouthpiece.

“There have been outrageous arguments coming out of the U.S. State Department that it won’t ease sanctions until a denuclearisation is completed, and reinforcing sanctions is a way to raise its negotiating power,” the newspaper said in an editorial.

“How could the sanctions, which were a stick the U.S. administration had brandished as part of its hostile policy against us, promote the two countries’ amity?”