by RT
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on a balcony of the Grand People’s Study House following a military parade in Pyongyang; and an image (R) taken on July 19, 2017 of US President Donald Trump speaking during the first meeting of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in Washington, DC.
Nuclear-armed North Korea mocked President Donald Trump as “bereft of reason” on August 10, 2017, raising the stakes in their stand-off with an unusually detailed plan to send a salvo of missiles towards the US territory of Guam. / AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB AND Ed JONESSAUL LOEB,ED JONES/AFP/Getty Images
North Korea is ready to sit at the negotiating table for peace talks if it is recognized as a nuclear power, the Russian delegation to Pyongyang said, adding that the North claims that it was forced to be aggressive and will not stop its nuclear program.
“They [Pyongyang] are ready to talk, however the [North] Korean side has its own condition – it should be recognized as a nuclear power,” Vitaly Pashin, a member of the Russian delegation, told news agencies upon their return. The North is now ready to negotiate with Washington “under parity terms” with the participation of Russia as a third party, he added.
North Korea is capable of hitting any target in the US with its warheads “at any moment,” according to Pashin, who is also a member of the Russian State Duma. Pyongyang claims that it was forced to be aggressive and, following the launch of the ballistic missile, Pyongyang now feels safe. It would never abandon its nuclear program, North Korean officials told the Russian delegation.
Pyongyang fired the Hwasong-15 missile on Wednesday. It splashed down in the Sea of Japan, according to the South Korean, Japanese, and US militaries. North Korea claimed the missile reached an altitude of around 4,475km and flew 950km during its flight, which lasted 53 minutes.
According to a South Korean defence ministry spokesman, the missile is a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile that can fly over 13,000km. “It’s assessed that the flight test was successful,” the spokesman said, as cited by Yonhap news agency. “In the case it were fired at a normal angle, it would be capable of flying over 13,000km. That means it can reach Washington DC.”
