No breakthrough in peace talks on Korean Peninsula: Commentator
Press TV has conducted an interview with Michael Penn, a journalist and political commentator from Tokyo, about North Korea’s reaction to the latest missile drills by the US, South Korea and Japan off Hawaii.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Give us your assessment on these drills.
Penn: Of course when the United States, Japan and Korea are doing military drills together, joint exercises, this is meant to demonstrate, in a political sense and a military sense, their solidarity in facing what they call the North Korean military threat. And so, it’s meant to be a strong message to Pyongyang that if military hostilities do break out, you’re going to have many enemies at the same time.
Press TV: And what about a response from Pyongyang? They’ve reiterated the possibility of carrying out a preemptive nuclear attack if threatened.
Penn: A nuclear attack or nuclear weapons and defense is one thing, but when you’re saying that preemptively you might use nuclear weapons, that is definitely something that I don’t think any other country in the world really says. So clearly North Korea is, in its rhetoric and in its verbal threats, pretty far ahead or outside of what other countries tend to do diplomatically.
Press TV: This will put a dent in inter-Korean talks and any hope for the peace talks taking place on the Korean Peninsula as well.
Penn: Yes, that’s right. The peace talks between the two Koreas as well as the talks between North Korea and Japan over the abductees is pretty much frozen. We’ve had the missile tests from North Korea the other day and this continuing number of tests both military of nuclear weapons and as well as missile tests have basically put a damper on any real progress in peace talks or in reducing tensions. And this looks set to continue for some time. We don’t see any breakthrough at the moment.
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