77North Koren leader Kim Jong Un’s sister said President Donald Trump is welcome to talk to her brother, but he should not expect the tiny nation to give up its nukes.
Kim Yo Jong, a power in her own right, said the “personal relationship” between Trump and her brother is “not bad,” but said asking North Korea to give up the arsenal that expanded during the Biden era would be a waste of breath, according to NBC.
“The year 2025 is neither 2018 nor 2019,” she said in a statement carried by North Korea’s state news agency.
“The recognition of the irreversible position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state and the hard fact that its capabilities and geopolitical environment have radically changed should be a prerequisite for predicting and thinking everything in the future,” she said, using the abbreviation for the nation’s official name – the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“If the U.S. fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK-U.S. meeting will remain as a ‘hope’ of the U.S. side,” she said in the statement.
Talks on the nation’s nukes would be “nothing but a mockery,” the statement said, according to Politico.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung issued a Tuesday statement supporting talks between Trump and Kim, NBC reported
South Korea and the U.S. “will continue to engage in close communication and cooperation on overall North Korea policy, including the potential resumption of U.S.-North Korea dialogue,” the statement said.
Nam Sung-wook, a former head of the Institute for National Security Strategy, which is operated by South Korea’s intelligence agency, said the statement was a pre-emptive strike to set the tone for any talks that might follow, according to Politico.
Do you consider North Korea a threat to American interests?
“North Korea wants to say it’s not interested in talks on denuclearization and the U.S. must determine what benefits it can give to the North first,” Nam said.
A report in The New York Times suggested the statement was staking out a negotiating position.
“Analysts said that if diplomacy with Mr. Trump resumed, Mr. Kim is likely to steer discussions away from a full denuclearization. He would instead propose to give up only part of his nuclear weapons program in return for concessions from Washington, such as the lifting of sanctions, they said,” the outlet reported.
Trump and Kim met in Singapore in 2018, Hanoi in 2019, and the Korean Demilitarized Zone in 2019, but were not able to make a deal on North Korea’s nuclear program, according to Fox News.
ICYMI: Trump became the first sitting president to step into North Korea pic.twitter.com/bcQs1T8o7l
— Joel Franco (@OfficialJoelF) June 30, 2019
A recent article posted by Yonhap news agency said an unnamed White House official told it Trump “remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearized North Korea.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said Trump would like to build upon the summits with Kim.
“The president retains those objectives and remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearized North Korea,” the official said.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
