North Korea's Kim Jong Un questioned the need to continue denuclearization talks with U.S. - Yonhap

A senior North Korean diplomat on Friday questioned the need to continue denuclearization talks with the United States, saying leader Kim Jong-un appears to be changing his mind as well.

In an interview with Yonhap News Agency, Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui stated that her country should be rewarded adequately for more than a year of halts to nuclear and long-range missile testing: with the lifting of at least some U.N. sanctions.

"I think about whether (we) should continue talks," she said, recalling leader Kim Jong-un's New Year's message, in which he said his regime will be left with no other choice than pursuing a "different path" to dialogue unless the U.S. takes reciprocal steps.

"I (got) a feeling that (Chairman Kim) is changing his thought a bit" toward the negotiations with the U.S., Choe said. "It's my personal feeling."

Choe said her country has already taken a lot of goodwill measures emphasizing that they have stayed away from nuclear and missile tests for 15 months.

According to Choe, the U.S. has gone too far toward the "reckless assertion" that North Korea should dismantle nuclear and missile facilities.

She accused the Trump administration of having moved the goal-posts, saying it initially talked about dismantling the Yongbyon nuclear complex and is now taking issue with other sites as well.

The diplomat said Kim had put forward his "best offer" of dismantling the Yongbyon facilities under the inspection of U.S. nuclear experts.

Choe said she also got the impression that Kim feels "very odd" about the way the U.S. calculates the price of the Yongbyon dismantlement.

"We have lots of thinking about the U.S. response," she added.