North Korean leader Kim Jong Un suggested in a speech on Friday that he has no interest in cooperating with the United States or President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump succeeded in improving U.S.-North Korea relations to some extent during his first term by negotiating with Kim, but relations have deteriorated in recent years under the Biden administration. According to North Korea's State Department, Kim said on Friday that he felt U.S. hostility was increasing and North Korea had no choice but to continue building up its military, abandoning the possibility of a diplomatic solution. He said it seems like there are. media. (Related article: 'Everything has changed now': Biden spent recent months in office risking nuclear war with Russia)
“The United States is becoming more and more brazen in trying to bring the whole world within its interests,” Kim said at a military ceremony in Pyongyang on Friday, adding that in 2024 the United States will He claimed it was more “hostile” than any other year. . “We have already done everything possible in bilateral negotiations with the United States.”
Kim claimed that the United States is “expanding its shared nuclear military alliance system to contain our country's rapid rise,” implying that future nuclear negotiations are off the table. As of January 2024, North Korea is estimated to have at least 50 nuclear warheads, according to the Arms Control Association, and the stockpile is growing, although the number could be higher. He continues to do so.
Photo of a handout showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating South and North Korea in Panmunjom, South Korea, June 30, 2019 (Dong-A Ilbo) provided). (Photo provided by: Handout/Dong-A Ilbo, via Getty Images)
“The Korean peninsula has never been in such a critical situation that the possibility of a destructive thermonuclear war erupting is as high as it is now,'' Kim said.
Kim's feelings about future relations with the United States were already hinted at in North Korean media in July. State media at the time said North Korea “doesn't care” who won the U.S. presidential election and insisted that relations “will not change.”
State media reported in July that “the time has come for the United States to really worry about its own security.”
Tensions between the United States and North Korea have been ongoing for a long time. Trump and Kim's relationship got off to a bad start in 2017, but they eventually agreed to negotiations and met several times over the next few years. Kim crossed the North Korean border to welcome Trump in 2019, becoming the first U.S. president to do so.
President Trump had aimed to move North Korea toward denuclearization in exchange for sanctions relief, but negotiations ultimately stalled by the time Trump left office. North Korea suspended some of its weapons and nuclear testing capabilities during President Trump's term, but resumed them as soon as Biden took office in 2021.
Trump said several times during the 2024 campaign that he wanted to restart negotiations with Kim, claiming he could better deal with the North Korean leader.
“I got along very well with him, and there shouldn't have been any problems,” Trump said in a speech in July. interviewHe pointed to the deterioration of U.S.-North Korea relations under the Biden administration. “Now he's very angry with us.”
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