Relations between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump are “not bad,” but any attempt to resume dialogue between the two countries should start with recognizing Pyongyang as a nuclear power, Kim’s sister said yesterday.
In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo-jong said the US should start acknowledging the North’s “radically changed” capabilities and that Pyongyang is open to “any option” to defend its national interest.
“I do not want to deny the fact that the personal relationship between the head of our state and the present US president is not bad,” she said.
Photo: AP
However, “it is worth taking into account the fact that the year 2025 is neither 2018 nor 2019,” she added.
Trump and Kim Jong-un met in person three times during the US president’s first term, but the discussions did not persuade the North Korean leader to slow the development of his nuclear weapons program.
Pyongyang has since rebuffed the idea of sitting down with the US again and has emerged as a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, supporting his war on Ukraine.
Kim Yo-jong’s statement comes just a day after she rejected overtures for talks from South Korea, bristling at its joint military drills with the US.
South Korea’s point man for North Korea proposed adjusting the plans for future exercises to facilitate diplomacy.
“North Korea appears to be seeking to secure favorable conditions — such as recognition as a nuclear state — by leveraging President Trump’s willingness to engage in dialogue and the conciliatory tone” from the South, said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.
Still, Pyongyang has “no expectations of an immediate improvement in relations,” either with the US or the South, he said.
North Korea possesses a growing arsenal of nuclear weapons, developed in defiance of international sanctions. Its nuclear program includes both atomic bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the US mainland.
Pyongyang justifies its ambitions as a deterrent against perceived threats, especially from the US and South Korea.
In a shift from past rhetoric ruling out any engagement, the younger Kim said that the two countries should avoid going in a confrontational direction.
“If so, it would be advisable to seek another way of contact on the basis of such new thinking,” she said in the latest statement.
North Korea’s demand to drop calls for denuclearization is set to stoke concerns in the South and the wider region, especially at a time when Seoul faces growing pressure from Trump to pay more to host 28,500 US troops on its soil.
Any cracks in the alliance between Washington and Seoul or a weakening of the US commitment to extend deterrence risks spooking investors and boosting public support for South Korea to develop its own atomic weapons.
Kim Yo-jong has served as the public face of the North’s diplomatic messaging, especially when signaling shifts or hardline positions.
She is often described as Kim Jong-un’s de facto second-in-command on inter-Korean affairs.
Last year, North Korea released its first photos of a facility to enrich uranium for atomic bombs, indicating it no longer sees a need to hide a program it once furiously denied when then-US president George W. Bush first made the accusation in 2002.
Kim Jong-un toured a laboratory making weapons-grade nuclear materials in January again and said the country should strengthen its nuclear shield.
“If the US fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK-US meeting will remain a hope of the US side,” Kim Yo-jong said, referring to North Korea’s formal name.
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