North Korea News: Kim Jong Un Lashes Out At UK, Leader's Sister Casts Doubt On Summit With US

North Korea has lashed out at the United Kingdom over new sanctions on two of its organizations involved in reported human rights abuses, while Kim Jong Un's sister has placed doubt on another nuclear summit with the United States.

“Britain’s latest move is a flagrant political plot to jump on the bandwagon of the United States’ inimical policy,” a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement carried by state-run media on Saturday. “We strongly condemn and reject the U.K.’s daring to impose sanctions on the institutions responsible for our country’s security as violent interference in domestic affairs.”

The U.K. has frozen the assets of North Korea’s Ministry of State Security Bureau 7 and Ministry of People’s Security Correctional Bureau. The two organizations are reportedly involved in human rights abuses such as forced labor and torture in the country’s prison camps.

North Korea has also turned its ire to the U.S., with Kim Jong Un’s sister saying this week that another nuclear summit would be unlikely to take place this year.

“It is still my personal opinion, however, I doubt that things like the [North Korea]-U.S. summit talks would happen this year,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement broadcast on North Korean media. She said the U.S. would need to make more concessions for talks to resume, but also did not rule out a “surprise” from her brother and President Trump.

“Assuming that we hold the summit talks now, it is too obvious that it will only be used as boring boasting coming from someone’s pride,” she claimed.

Although some Trump administration officials are eager for nuclear talks to continue, negotiations have been stalled since October.

The Trump administration would like Pyongyang to commit to a path of denuclearization, while North Korea would like debilitating sanctions lifted from its economy.

In a break from protocol and U.S. diplomatic norms, Trump became the first American president to meet with a North Korean leader, with summits in Vietnam in February 2019 and in Singapore in June 2018. However, Trump and Kim Jong Un failed to come to a nuclear agreement.

Former National Security Adviser John Bolton has said there is no chance that North Korea would give up its nuclear arsenal. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has criticized Trump for meeting Kim Jong Un without preconditions.

According to a June report from the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, Pyongyang has stockpiled nuclear weapons in recent years. North Korea reportedly has added up to 20 new warheads since January 2019, with the isolated country now having 30 to 40 warheads in total.