North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un declared that his nation is seriously threatened by the United States’ strengthened security alliance with South Korea and Japan and promised to strengthen his nuclear weapons program even more.
Although Kim has issued similar warnings in the past, his most recent remarks suggest that the North Korean leader is unlikely to accept President Donald Trump’s invitation to meet and resume diplomatic relations anytime soon.
“Referring to a series of new plans for rapidly bolstering all deterrence including nuclear forces, he clarified once again the unshakable policy of more highly developing the nuclear forces,” KCNA said.
Kim has concentrated on expanding and updating his nuclear weapons stockpile in the face of frozen diplomatic relations with the United States and South Korea in recent years.
As a result, Japan is now a part of more trilateral training and bilateral military drills between the US and South Korea. North Korea has reacted negatively to those exercises, accusing them of being invasion rehearsals.
Trump boasted of his high-stakes meeting with Kim during his first term and has since declared he will reach out to him again after his inauguration on January 20 and said will reach out to him again.
Given its ongoing weapons testing and anti-American rhetoric, North Korea has not directly reacted to Trump’s current invitation. According to numerous analysts, Kim’s current focus is on sending troops to Russia to aid in its conflict against Ukraine. They claim that if Kim decides he won’t be able to continue the strong cooperation with Russia after the conflict, he will still eventually think about resuming diplomatic relations with Trump.
North Korea “will invariably support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend their sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity,” Kim reiterated in his speech on Saturday. The U.S. is responsible for “the war machine which is stirring up the tragic situation of Ukraine,” according to Kim.
Some in South Korea are concerned that Trump may forsake the international community’s long-standing objective of fully denuclearizing North Korea in order to gain a diplomatic victory.
However, following their summit, Trump and Ishiba jointly released a statement in which they reaffirmed “their resolute commitment to the complete denuclearization of the DPRK,” which stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
According to the statement, the United States and Japan also reaffirmed the significance of the trilateral alliance between South Korea, the United States, and Japan in reacting to North Korea.
