Karen DeYoung
The Washington Post
July 2, 2013
North Korea is willing to hold direct talks with the United States, but only “if the United States sincerely seeks to end the vicious cycle of tensions and hostility” and has no preconditions, its foreign minister said here Tuesday.
“The United States is responsible for pushing the Korean peninsula to the brink of war,” Foreign Minister Pak Eui-chun said in a speech to Asian foreign ministers. “For Washington to accuse us of provocations is nonsense.”
After a meeting here Monday with his Chinese counterpart, Secretary of State John F. Kerry praised China for what he called “very firm statements and very firm steps” insisting that North Korea give up its nuclear weapons program. At the same time, he said China could have done more to help the United States in apprehending fugitive leaker Edward Snowden.
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