North Korea tells Trump to accept new nuclear reality
Donald Trump must accept a “changed reality” and recognise North Korea as a nuclear power if the United States wants to resume talks, Kim Jong-un’s sister has warned.
On Tuesday, Kim Yo-jong said that although the “personal relationship” between her brother and Mr Trump is “not bad”, it should not be exploited to discuss denuclearisation.
“Any attempt to deny the position of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] as a nuclear weapons state ... will be thoroughly rejected,” Ms Kim said in a statement issued by Korean Central News Agency, a state media outlet.
Ms Kim, who is often seen as the public face of the regime’s diplomatic messaging, added that “it is worth taking into account the fact that the year 2025 is neither 2018 nor 2019”.
During Mr Trump’s first term in office, he met Kim Jong-un in person three times, yet talks fell short of an agreement on denuclearisation.
Instead, North Korea has accelerated its nuclear programme in defiance of international sanctions. It has been said this is justified as a deterrent against perceived threats – particularly from South Korea and the US.
The state has also grown much closer to Russia and emerged as a key ally of Vladimir Putin in his war on Ukraine. According to the British Ministry of Defence, around 6,000 North Koreans have been killed or wounded while fighting against Ukraine in Russia’s Kursk region.
Ms Kim said any attempt by Washington to use potential talks to discuss denuclearisation would “be interpreted as nothing but a mockery”, given North Korea’s evolving position on the world stage.
Her comments appeared to be a response to a report from the South Korean Yonhap News Agency, in which an unnamed White House official said that Mr Trump “remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearised North Korea”.
Since Lee Jae Myung took office in early June, Seoul has stopped anti-Pyongyang loudspeaker broadcasts at the countries’ shared border, taken steps to ban activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets and repatriated North Koreans who had drifted south in wooden boats.
But these efforts have so far been rebuffed by the North. On Monday, in Pyongyang’s first official statement on the South’s new government, Ms Kim said its “blind trust” in the country’s alliance with the US and hostility toward the North were no different from its conservative predecessor.
On Tuesday, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said it would actively support any resumption of talks between Washington and Pyongyang.
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