Seoul (EFE).- North Korea said Tuesday there is good rapport between its leader Kim Jong-un and United States President Donald Trump but ruled out negotiating to denuclearize and added that North Korea’s status as a nuclear power cannot be undone.
“I don’t want to deny that the personal relationship between the head of our state and the current president of the US is not bad,” said Kim Yo-jong, Kim’s sister and an influential figure in the regime, in a statement published by the KCNA news agency.
She added, however, that using the professed sympathy to push for dialogue on denuclearization is “a simple mockery.”
“2025 is neither 2018 nor 2019,” said the deputy director of the Workers’ Party Central Committee, referring to the years between which Kim and Trump held three summits during the Republican’s first term, before the dialogue was frozen due to differences over the terms of the process. After this, Pyongyang again strengthened its nuclear and missile programs.
Kim’s comments follow recent statements from the White House stating Trump stabilized the situation on the Korean Peninsula during his first term and reached the first high-level agreement on denuclearization with Pyongyang. The White House on Monday called this description of what happened a “unilateral assessment by the United States.”
Trump himself has stated since returning in January to power that his administration remains open to dialogue to achieve the complete denuclearization of North Korea and has even attempted to deliver a personal letter to the leader through diplomatic channels, without success.
“Recognition of (North Korea)’s irreversible status as a nuclear-weapons state and the harsh reality that its capabilities and geopolitical environment have radically changed should be a prerequisite for predicting and thinking about the future,” Kim said. She added that any attempt to deny Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear power “will be resoundingly rejected” by the regime.
“If the United States does not accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, a meeting between the DPRK and the US will remain a ‘hope’ for the US side,” she said.
Kim added that it is “absolutely not beneficial” for either side to engage in confrontation, given that both possess nuclear weapons, and called on “seeking another avenue of contact based on this new perspective.”
The statement comes a day after she signed another text released by KCNA, stating that North Korea will not engage in dialogue with South Korea, despite rapprochement since Lee Jae-myung came to power in June, and that it has blindly adhered to its alliance with the US. EFE
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