SEOUL, June 18 (AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said his country needs to prepare for "both dialogue and confrontation" with the United States under President Joe Biden, state media reported on Friday (Jun 18).
At a plenary meeting of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea on Thursday, Kim outlined his strategy for relations with Washington, and the "policy tendency of the newly emerged US administration", the Korean Central News Agency said.
Kim "stressed the need to get prepared for both dialogue and confrontation, especially to get fully prepared for confrontation in order to protect the dignity of our state" and reliably guarantee a "peaceful environment", KCNA reported.
The North Korean leader "called for sharply and promptly reacting to and coping with the fast-changing situation and concentrating efforts on taking stable control of the situation on the Korean peninsula", the agency said.
Pyongyang had already accused Biden of pursuing a "hostile policy" and saying it was a "big blunder" for the veteran Democrat to say he would deal with the threat posed by the North's nuclear programme "through diplomacy as well as stern deterrence".
In 2019, the North said Biden should be "beaten to death with a stick".
Biden's predecessor Donald Trump made headlines - but little diplomatic progress - with a series of face-to-face meetings with Kim, a policy that Biden says he will not pursue unless the terms change dramatically.