North Korea’s Kim Jong Un recalls ‘fond memories’ of Trump as he expresses openness for US talks

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he was open to future talks with the United States if Washington drops its demand that the country give up its nuclear weapons, state media said Monday.

Kim also said he had “fond memories” of US President Donald Trump, who he met three times for high-profile summits during Trump’s first term, before talks collapsed in Hanoi in 2019 over what concessions Pyongyang was prepared to make.

“If the United States discards its delusional obsession with denuclearisation and, based on recognising reality, truly wishes for peaceful coexistence with us, then there is no reason we cannot meet it,” Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The demand that Kim give up his nuclear arsenal has long been a sticking point between the two countries, with Pyongyang under successive rafts of UN sanctions over its banned weapons programmes.

Kim said that sanctions had only helped the North in “growing stronger, building endurance and resistance that cannot be crushed by any pressure”.

“I still personally hold fond memories of the current US president, Trump,” Kim added, in a wide-ranging speech to the country’s rubber-stamp parliament.

Since the failed 2019 summit, North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its nuclear weapons and declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state.

Kim reiterated that denuclearisation was not an option.

“The world already knows well what the United States does after it forces a country to give up its nuclear arms and disarm,” he said.

“We will never give up our nuclear weapons.”

Kim also said that he had “no reason to sit down with South Korea”, even as Seoul’s new President Lee Jae-myung has sought to ease tensions with the North.

“We make it clear that we will not deal with them in any form,” he said.

Russia ties

North Korea has in recent years declared the South its principal enemy and blown up rail links and roads that connect the two countries.

Analysts say that the North Korean leader has been emboldened by the war in Ukraine, securing critical support from Russia after sending thousands of North Korean troops to fight alongside Moscow.

North Korea has become one of Russia’s main allies since Moscow invaded Ukraine three-and-a-half years ago, sending thousands of soldiers and container loads of weapons to help the Kremlin push Ukrainian forces out of western Russia, following Kyiv’s shock incursion last year.

Moscow and Pyongyang signed a mutual defence pact last year when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the reclusive state.

Seoul has repeatedly warned that Russia is stepping up support for Pyongyang, including the potential transfer of sensitive Russian military technology.

Trump is expected to visit South Korea next month, when the country hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) in its southern city of Gyeongju.

Kim, who visited Russia’s Far East in 2023, rarely leaves North Korea. But he travelled to Beijing this month on an armoured train.

He stood beside Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at a massive parade marking the 80th anniversary of Japan’s World War II surrender.