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N. Korea denounces Park-Obama deal, ‘will never abandon nuclear arsenal’

October 19, 2015

President Barack Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye shakes hands following their joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 16, 2015. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

SEOUL (Yonhap) — North Korea criticized President Park Geun-hye Monday for her latest summit deal with U.S. President Barack Obama, saying she played a “shameful farce” against Pyongyang.

The Rodong Sinmun, a newspaper serving as the North’s major propaganda organ, stressed the communist nation will never abandon its nuclear arsenal unless the U.S. rolls back its “hostile” policy against the North.

Last week, Park visited the White House for her fourth summit with Obama.

They issued a joint statement on North Korea. The two sides reaffirmed a commitment to the common goal of achieving the “complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea in a peaceful manner.”

Park and Obama also called the North’s human rights abuse “deplorable.”

“She would be seriously mistaken if she thinks she can scare the DPRK (North Korea) with ‘the joint statement on the North’ with her master,” the newspaper, published by the powerful Workers’ Party, said in its commentary. “She should clearly understand a catastrophic consequence to be entailed by her reckless words and deeds.”

The North’s regime has not released any formal response yet to the Park-Obama agreement. The reclusive country often issues direct warnings against the South or the U.S. through the National Defense Commission, which is headed by leader Kim Jong-un, the Foreign Ministry, or the Committee for Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, which handles daily inter-Korean affairs.