North Korea has said it may pull out of a summit with US President Donald Trump if the United States unilaterally insists on giving up its nuclear weapons through Kim Kye-gwan, the regime's first deputy foreign minister.
North Korea will never receive US financial aid in exchange for unilaterally abandoning its nuclear program, it said.
The long-awaited meeting between the two will take place on June 12 in Singapore. The meeting was settled when North Korea pledged to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.
"If the United States insists and unilaterally demands that we give up nuclear weapons, we will no longer be interested in talks and will have to reconsider whether we will attend the June 12 meeting."
Kim Kye-gwan said North Korea "had high hopes" for the summit, but that "it was very unfortunate that the United States challenged us to the summit by throwing ridiculous statements."
On Tuesday, North Korea also announced the suspension of all scheduled talks with South Korea due to US-South Korean military exercises, which it described as a "challenge."