Kim Jong Un’s message to Trump: We’re not interested
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared to rebuff the prospect of reviving his nuclear diplomacy with President-elect Donald Trump, according to his first public remarks about disarmament talks since the election. North Korea’s state media reported Friday that the 40-year-old dictator called the U.S.
a superpower that operated by force rather than a will to coexist and belittled the value that previous talks had for his cash-strapped regime. “We have already explored every possible avenue in negotiating with the U.S.," Kim was quoted as saying during a speech at a defense expo in the capital Pyongyang on Thursday. What has become clear, he added, is the U.S.’s “unchanging aggressive and hostile policy" toward North Korea.
Managing the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear program will be one of Trump’s major foreign-policy challenges during his second term. But since Trump left office in 2021, Pyongyang has dramatically strengthened its leverage; the regime has expanded its nuclear arsenal, warded off economic collapse from Covid-19 and deepened military and economic ties with Moscow, including deploying troops for Russia’s war against Ukraine. Kim has fewer reasons to seek sanctions relief from the U.S.
and has repeatedly played down the need for disarmament talks. He has grown more unwilling to disarm, rewrote his country’s nuclear doctrine to allow pre-emptive strikes and vowed to pursue a limitless expansion of North Korea’s weapons. Russian President Vladimir Putin is also providing Kim with things that the U.S.
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