Kim prepared for talks if U.S. offers up denuclearization demand : NPR

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Korean Central Information Company/Korea Information Service through AP/KCNA through KNS SEOUL – North Korean chief Kim Jong Un mentioned there is no such thing as a cause to not resume stalled negotiations with the U.S., if Washington drops its "obsession" with eliminating North Korea's nuclear weapons.

It might look like Kim's clearest message of his willingness to fulfill with president Trump and revive diplomacy that has been stalled since 2019.

"If the U.S. drops its hole obsession with denuclearization and desires to pursue peaceable coexistence with North Korea primarily based on the popularity of actuality, there is no such thing as a cause for us to not sit down with the U.S.," Kim instructed a gathering of North Korea's legislature, the Supreme Folks's Meeting.

"Personally, I nonetheless have good recollections of U.S. President Trump," Kim added.

Kim and Trump met in Singapore, Vietnam and the inter-Korean border in 2018 and 2019, throughout Trump's first administration, however failed to succeed in a deal on denuclearization in alternate for lifting sanctions on Pyongyang.

Kim added that North Korea developed nuclear weapons to make sure its survival, and it has written its irreversible nuclear standing into its structure.

"The world already is aware of effectively what america does after forcing different nations to surrender their nuclear weapons and disarm," he mentioned. Kim and North Korean officers have repeatedly cited Iraq and Libya as states that the U.S. has disarmed earlier than backing management change.

President Trump instructed visiting South Korean President Lee Jae Myung final month that he wish to meet with Kim Jong Un this 12 months. He has repeatedly referred to North Korea as a "nuclear energy."

That suggests recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state, which is one thing earlier U.S. administrations and international governments have persistently opposed.

In a gathering in July, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and South Korean International Minister Cho Hyun reaffirmed their governments' intention to understand the denuclearization of North Korea.

Ought to Trump and Kim meet once more this 12 months, Trump would discover Kim in a far stronger negotiating place, with a bigger nuclear arsenal and stronger backing from Russia and China.

Kim illustrated this level at a navy parade in Beijing this month, the place he appeared collectively for the primary time with Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's chief Xi Jinping.

Whereas leaving the door open to the U.S., Kim appeared to slam one other one on South Korea shut.

"We are going to by no means unify with a rustic that entrusts its politics and protection to a international energy," Kim mentioned, calling inter-Korean unification "pointless."

Final 12 months, Kim mentioned North Korea was abandoning its long-held objective of eventual reunification with the South, and severed all communications.

Since taking workplace in June, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has prolonged olive branches to the North, resembling halting propaganda broadcasts into the North, however he has been repeatedly rebuffed.