Ned Price: US Has No Intention Of Enmity, But North Korea Continues To Provoke

US State Department spokesman Ned Price. (Wikimedia Commons/US Department of State)

JAKARTA - The United States has no hostile intentions towards North Korea, on the other hand Pyonyang continues to carry out provocations, a State Department spokesman said on Monday.

The statement comes after Pyongyang cited what it claims is Washington's hostility to the country, warning that the US provocation of North Korea will be seen as a declaration of war.

"The DPRK has repeatedly been at an unprecedented rate involved in provocations, including several trials of the ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) system, other ballistic missiles, as well as other provocative activities that have pose a threat to peace and security in the Indo-Pacific and, in some ways, even more than that," State Department Press Secretary Ned Price said at a daily press conference.

"Even when we have shown the threats we and our partners face from these programs and these dangerous provocations, we have made it clear that we have no hostile intentions towards the DPRK," he added.

The DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

North Korea conducted 69 ballistic missile tests throughout 2022, marking a new record for ballistic missiles fired in one year.

On the other hand, Pyongyang periodically accuses the US of provoking North Korea by conducting joint military exercises with South Korea and Japan, which are claimed to be exercises aimed at attacking North Korea.

Price noted that the United States had offered to speak directly with North Korea for more than a year.

"We have made clear our willingness to engage in direct talks with the DPRK without preconditions to help realize, to advance the prospect of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Price said.

He added North Korea, "on the other hand, engaged only in provocations after provocation and has repeatedly rejected our diplomatic offer."

Price also reaffirmed the US' ongoing commitment to finding a diplomatic solution, saying "the diplomatic offer remains".

"We want the opportunity to discuss this matter directly if it is what we want, but we believe in diplomacy, even as we have explained, in our words and actions, that we will support our security commitments to our treaty allies, to Japan, to the Republic of Korea, to our allies around the world," he said, referring to South Korea by its official name.