PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — If any hopes have been raised that the progress between the United States and Iran to halt Tehran’s development of nuclear weapons could bring change in Pyongyang, North Korea has gone out of its way to thwart them.
In a flurry of public comments since the deal, the North has been blunt: Its nuclear weapons are not a bargaining chip; it is already a member of the nuclear club; and if Washington wants to talk, it must recognize the North as such or put an immediate end to its hostile policies toward Pyongyang.