North Korea vows to payback 'the pains the US has imposed on our people'

• Pyongyang warns the US is on track for a 'countdown toward confrontation' as it fired back recent comments from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

BY ANNA SAVVA

• Tensions have flared between the US and North Korea, with the dictatorship warning Washington is now on a "countdown toward confrontation".

North Korea issued the charged statement on Monday following what it called "reckless remarks" by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Pyongyang now believes the US has no intention of resuming nuclear talks, with a spokesman for leader Kim Jong Un vowing they will payback "the pains the US has imposed on our people" through sanctions.

It came after Mr Pompeo told reporters last week following a meeting of G7 leading industrial nation that the international community must remain united in urging North Korea to return to nuclear talks and to end its nuclear and missile programmes.

North Korea said in a statement Mr Pompeo's remarks undermined their efforts and showed the US has no strategy to avoid "a countdown of confrontation".

Mr Pompeo "seriously impaired the signboard of dialogue put up by the US president as a decoy to buy time and create the environment favourable for himself" the spokesman said.

The statement also referred to a recent personal letter that President Donald Trump sent to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which North Korea said was aimed at maintaining good relations and offering cooperation in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

The statement did not say what action North Korea intended to take. But it said it would be designed to repay the US for suffering it has inflicted on North Korea, in an apparent reference to US-led sanctions that the North says have stifled its economy.

In late December, Mr Kim said he no longer felt obliged to maintain a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests and that he would soon unveil "a new strategic weapon".

In 2017, Mr Kim's torrid run of major weapons tests aimed at acquiring the ability to launch nuclear strikes on the mainland US triggered fears of war on the Korean Peninsula.

Mr Kim later suspended nuclear and long-range missile tests before he began direct talks with Mr Trump.

Diplomacy has been stalled since the breakdown of the second summit between Mr Trump and Mr Kim in Vietnam in early 2019.

During that meeting, Mr Trump rebuffed Mr Kim's calls for major sanctions relief in return for partial disarmament.

In recent weeks, North Korea has conducted a spate of missile and artillery test launches. All were short-range and did not pose a direct threat to the US.

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