North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said he had “good memories” of President Donald Trump and saw no reason not to meet him again — as long as the US stops insisting on dismantling his country’s nuclear arsenal.
Kim’s remarks — contained in his speech before the North Korean parliament on Sunday and reported by state media on Monday — came days after Trump said he would travel to South Korea in late October for a regional summit meeting.
Trump, who met Kim three times in 2018 and 2019, has repeatedly since his return to the White House expressed a willingness to meet Kim again, boasting of his “good relationship” with the North Korean dictator. North Korea too has reported that Kim’s relations with Trump were “not bad”. But the speech on Sunday marked the first time since the American leader began his second term that Kim personally commented on their relationship.
“Personally, I still have good memories of US President Trump,” Kim said during his speech on Sunday. “If the US drops its hollow obsession with denuclearisation and wants to pursue peaceful coexistence with North Korea based on the recognition of reality, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the US.”
Kim saved some of his harshest words for South Korea, snubbing calls from the South’s leader, Lee Jae Myung, for inter-Korean dialogue. He said the North would never sit down with the South for talks or discuss the reunification of the divided Korean Peninsula.
“We will never unify with a country that entrusts its politics and defence to a foreign power,” he said, referring to South Korea’s military alliance with the US.
On Sunday, Kim said that in his country’s confrontation with the US, “time is on our side”.
New York Times News Service