North Korea threatens to cancel Trump summit over US nuke demands

[Born To Slay 10,996]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/15/asia/north-korea-trump-talks-intl/index.html

(CNN)North Korea has threatened to abandon planned talks between leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump in June if Washington insists on pushing it "into a corner" on nuclear disarmament.

A statement published by the state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said North Korea would never accept economic assistance from the US in exchange for unilaterally abandoning its nuclear program. 

Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea's First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was quoted in the article as saying the US said "it would offer economic compensation and benefit in case we abandon (nuclear weapons)." 

"We have never had any expectation of US support in carrying out our economic construction and will not... make such a deal in future," he added.

If the Trump administration was "genuinely committed" to improving ties with Pyongyang, "they will receive a deserving response," Kim Kye Gwan said. "But if they try to push us into a corner and force only unilateral nuclear abandonment, we will no longer be interested in that kind of talks and will have to reconsider ... the upcoming summit."

[Roelof 216]

Quick question on something I have been wondering about for a while... Why are no countries allowed nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction, except the USA?  Because to some degree I agree with North Korea here... Why only UNILATERAL nuclear abandonment?

[Whispering 18,865]

3 minutes ago, Roelof said:

Quick question on something I have been wondering about for a while... Why are no countries allowed nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction, except the USA?  Because to some degree I agree with North Korea here... Why only UNILATERAL nuclear abandonment?

There are eight sovereign states that have successfully detonated nuclear weapons. Five are considered to be nuclear-weapon States (NWS) under the terms of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). In order of acquisition of nuclear weapons these are: the United States, Russia, UK, France, and China.

Since the NPT entered into force in 1970, three states that were not parties to the Treaty have conducted nuclear tests...India, Pakistan, and North Korea. North Korea had been a party to the NPT but withdrew in 2003.

Israel is also generally understood to have nuclear weapons, but does not acknowledge it, and is not known definitively to have conducted a nuclear test.  Israel is estimated to possess somewhere between 75 and 400 nuclear warheads.