North Korea Says It Will Respond to U.S. Denuclearization Policy to the End, Effectively Rejecting U.S.-North Korea Talks

[Financial News] North Korea has criticized the U.S. administration's policy of 'complete denuclearization' toward the North. It appears to have declared that if the United States continues to demand complete denuclearization, it will not engage in the U.S.-North Korea talks that Donald Trump is seeking to advance in November.
According to KCNA on the 31st, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that North Korea would respond with the strongest countermeasures to the United States' unchanging hostile policy. The spokesperson emphasized this after noting that recent remarks by U.S. State Department spokespersons and other administration officials had reaffirmed a commitment to 'North Korea's complete denuclearization' and 'no change in policy toward North Korea.'
North Korea also accused the United States of raising human rights issues to "openly reveal its extremely impure and malicious hostile intent to create internal instability." It went on to say that the United States was repeatedly carrying out military provocations, including plans to press ahead with 'Freedom Edge,' a trilateral multi-domain joint military exercise by the United States, Japan, and South Korea, as well as aerial reconnaissance activities.
North Korea again defended the legitimacy of its nuclear arsenal. It claimed that "our nuclear weapons are an absolute guarantee for safeguarding sovereignty" and that "possessing nuclear weapons and continuously strengthening them is the most responsible and correct choice for ensuring peace and security in the region."

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