North Korea declared there is “no need to sit face to face” with U.S. officials, with Kim Yo Jong stating that dialogue does not serve Pyongyang’s national interests days after the FBI attributed a $6.34 billion cryptocurrency heist to the North and as President Donald Trump faced a poor showing in the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made the remarks in a statement accusing Washington of maintaining an “invariable hostile policy,” citing the Binance theft allegations, joint South Korea-U.S. military drills and American demands for denuclearisation, according to KCNA reports.
Binance Heist Cited as Proof of Hostility
Kim Yo Jong dismissed the FBI’s accusation that a North Korea-affiliated hacking group called TraderTraitor stole the funds from the cryptocurrency exchange as “an extension of Washington’s invariable hostile policy toward the DPRK.” She had previously slammed the allegations as “a grave political provocation.”
The FBI said Saturday that TraderTraitor was behind the October 29 attack, which experts believe is the biggest cryptocurrency heist ever. Binance reported that attackers used fake job interviews and malicious code to steal the funds over about four hours, and that around $2.85 billion of the $6.34 billion had been frozen. Trump, asked about the hack, said, “We don’t know if it’s North Korea but if it is we’ll talk to North Korea about it.”
North Korea Escalates Missile Tests and Warship Construction
The diplomatic rebuff came as North Korea fired several missiles, believed to be close-range ballistic missiles, toward the East Sea from the Sondok area of South Hamgyong Province on Nov. 4, marking the country’s fourth missile test in a week, according to state media reports. Pyongyang also released images of Kim Jong Un inspecting construction of a new warship at the Nampo Shipyard on Nov. 2, a vessel believed to be a 10,000-ton cruiser that would be the largest warship the country has publicly unveiled.
Countermeasures Warned
Kim Yo Jong said that when “new records are being set in the implementation of the US hostile policy toward the DPRK, it is natural that new records should be created in our reflective counteraction,” though she did not specify what measures Pyongyang might take. Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said the comments lowered the “priority of dialogue while putting pressure on the United States.”
