Kim Yo-jong has stated that amicable personal relations between heads of state should not be used as a pretext to compel denuclearization.
Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a senior official in the Workers’ Party of Korea, has asserted that the United States must acknowledge North Korea’s permanent status as a nuclear-armed nation.
She also cautioned that personal ties between her brother and US President Donald Trump should not be exploited to force Pyongyang to denuclearize.
In a statement released Tuesday by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim Yo-jong, who serves as vice department director of the party’s Central Committee, warned that any future dialogue must be founded on “the recognition of the irreversible position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state.”
She added that another essential condition should be the understanding that Pyongyang’s capabilities and geopolitical environment “have radically changed” since Trump’s first term, which featured historic US-North Korea diplomacy.
Kim stated that any attempt to deny this reality “will be thoroughly rejected,” and that North Korea “is open to any option in defending its present national position.” She conceded that “it is by no means beneficial to each other for the two countries possess[ing] nuclear weapons to go in a confrontational direction.”
While acknowledging that “the personal relationship between the head of our state and the present US president is not bad,” Kim warned that “if the personal relations between the top leaders of the DPRK and the US are to serve the purpose of denuclearization, it can be interpreted as nothing but a mockery of the other party.”
“If the US fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, a DPRK-US meeting will remain as a ‘hope’ of the US side,” Kim concluded.
Between 2018 and 2019, Trump met Kim Jong-un three times in an effort to negotiate North Korea’s denuclearization in exchange for security guarantees and economic relief. Despite this unprecedented diplomacy, no lasting agreement was reached, and discussions stalled.
North Korea is estimated to possess approximately 50 nuclear weapons and maintains that this arsenal serves as a vital deterrent against a potential incursion by the US and South Korea, who regularly conduct military drills near its borders.