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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his past negotiations with the United States only confirmed Washington’s “unchangeable” hostility toward Pyongyang and described his nuclear buildup as the only way to counter external threats, state media said Friday.
Kim spoke Thursday at a defense exhibition where North Korea displayed some of its most powerful weapons systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the U.S. mainland, the North’s Korean Central News Agency said. While meeting with army officers last week, he had pledged a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program.
Kim has yet to comment directly on Donald Trump's reelection as U.S. president. During his first term, Trump held three highly orchestrated summits with the North Korean leader in 2018 and 2019, before the diplomacy collapsed over disagreements in exchanging the release of U.S.-led economic sanctions and the North’s steps to wind down its nuclear program.
During the speech at the exhibition, Kim touched on the failed summits without naming Trump.
“We have already gone as far as possible with the United States with negotiations, and what we ended up confirming was not a superpower’s will for coexistence, but a thorough position based on force and an unchangeable invasive and hostile policy,” toward North Korea, Kim said.
Kim accused the United States of raising military pressure on North Korea by strengthening its military cooperation with regional allies and increasing the deployment of “strategic strike means,” apparently a reference to major U.S. assets like long-range bombers, submarines and aircraft carriers. He called for accelerated efforts to advance the capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, saying the country’s only guarantee of security to build up the “strongest defense power that can overwhelm the enemy.”
Kim's expanding nuclear weapons and missile program includes various weapons targeting South Korea and Japan and longer range missiles that have demonstrated the range to reach the U.S. mainland. Analysts say Kim’s nuclear push is aimed at eventually pressuring Washington into accepting the North as a nuclear power and to negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength.
In recent months, the priority of Kim’s foreign policy has been Russia, as he tries to strengthen his international footing, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and aligning with President Vladimir Putin’s broader conflicts with the West.
Washington and its allies have accused North Korea of providing Russia with thousands of troops and huge amounts of military equipment, including artillery systems and missiles, to help sustain its fighting in Ukraine. Kim in return could possibly receive badly needed economic aid and possible Russian technology transfers that would possibly enhance the threat posed by his nuclear-armed military, according to outside officials and experts.
Even with Trump returning to the White House, a quicky resumption of diplomacy with Pyongyang could be unlikely, according to some experts. North Korea's deepening alliance with Russia and the weakening sanctions enforcement against Pyongyang are presenting further challenges in the diplomatic push to resolve the nuclear standoff with Kim, who also would have a greater perception of his bargaining powers following a rapid expansion of his arsenal in recent years.
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27 Comments
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The_Beagle
Trump has a new rocketman now. Elon Musk. Kim Jong Un is yesterday's BFF.
Zaphod
As long as US and EU politicians carry out an undeclared war against Russia, Kim is in a very secure place, as Russian resources & technology in exchange for NK cheap labor & production is a obvious alliance. Any Western politician complaining now should look in the mirror.
JJE
No one has explained why UN-recognized NK is not entitled to enter into mutual defense pacts with any country it sees fit.
Other countries can. Why not NK?
JJE
This article mentions "weakening sanctions enforcement".
This is a distortion: the full truth is that the only legal sanctions, which are UN mandated ones, have happened to expire and were not renewed at the very same body.
Therefore, Pyongyang is not breaking any international law and not breaching anything of relevance.
TaiwanIsNotChina
The Nork's illegal nuclear program goes back 60 years and the nuclear test almost 20 years. Sounds like you never tried to get along, fatso.
TaiwanIsNotChina
A funny way of saying vetoed by russia.
JJE
...because of aggressive actions by the US and their vassals towards Moscow, would be a fuller, more accurate, honest explanation.
Fact of the matter is the UN-sanctions expired (I.E. they were applicable till a certain date and then after that date they expired).
Still no answer to the first question.
Speed
Look how fat and disgusting he looks in this pic.
Feed your people, fatboy. Just to think that 99.9% of the population had no say in who is currently ruling them. The hell started with Kim Il Sung and continues to this day.
quercetum
Why sanction a country like Ukraine or North Korea for wanting to defend itself. It's wrong to sanction Ukraine.
Peter Neil
nobody is invading north korea?
JJE
Yeah. Certain quarters are very selective and inconsistent when it comes to the right to self defense for countries, even UN recognized and non-UN recognized.
Some countries enjoy the privilege, others not. Apparently, Washington enjoys the special right to declare who is worthy of the privilege and who is not.
Peter14
More guff coming from the NK leader. Situation normal.
NK citizens desperate for more and better food, and health services and get nuclear missiles instead. Sadly those missiles are inedible. Kim remains over weight while the rest of his nation are under weight. Another national leader with the wrong priorities, just like his new bestie, the cuddly Putin bear
TaiwanIsNotChina
If NK wants to enter into a defense pact, that is their right, as is Ukraine's. They should be condemned for entering a disgusting war of aggression, though.
Glad you are quite certain Ukraine has the right to join NATO.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Not everybody should be getting nukes. It's wrong to try to wipe Ukraine off of the map like russia is trying to do.
JJE
No. Apples and oranges.
NK is threatened by occupied SK next door.
Russia will not be threatened by NATO-occupied Ukraine next door. Pyongyang understands this all too well, which is why it is assisting an honest neighbour.
Plus, NK never had neutrality written into the constitution or had a coup - another key difference.
There is no evidence yet of NK troops in Kursk, or even in parts of former Ukraine - which is poles apart from "entering a war of aggression".
rainyday
Yes, this is particularly notable among those who cheerlead the Russian invasion of a UN member state and denounces the free world for simply helping that country to exercise its right to self defense on the one hand, while on the other exalting the North Korean dictator's threats to drop nukes on South Korea, Japan and anyone else it wants in the name of self defense even though none of those countries are attacking or even threatening to attack it.
wallace
North Korean tankers returned from Russia loaded with oil as payment for the NK troops and weapons sent to Russia. They carried a million barrels of oil.
Wasabi
putin has a new friend and it is not trump?
TaiwanIsNotChina
SK is recognized as an independent country by 100% of other countries, but many quarters have trouble understanding what that means. Perhaps SK needs to teach them.
No one is more dishonest than russia by failling to recognize Ukraine's right to join defensive alliances, which as you so critically stressed belongs to all internationally recognized countries.
Ukraine never had neutrality written into its constitution either. And russia had a violent coup in 1993 so not even a clever attempt there to come up with a rationale for annexation.
JJE
Ahh... that old fig leaf. The 93 constitutional crisis, which was entirely domestic (not a coup and not financed by outside quarters).
Even NK knows that.
TaiwanIsNotChina
A naughty phone call does not make anything foreign financed and even if it was, what did it go to? More baseball bats?
JJE
NK is friendly with Syria. They are under heinous assault and invasion by US forces. They have armed separatists there.
But when it happens elsewhere, that is "outrageous"
Pyongyang understands this hypocrisy very well.
Gorramcowboy
I think Trump should bring them to the table and try to understand where all the angst comes from and why they're so confrontational to the US and their surrounding neighbors. After that, give them a massive stimulus package so Kim and his family can go on living like royalty all the while the citizens starve to death and suffer. Reward their misbehaviour.
Fighto!
My goodness, Fatboy Kim is expanding, if that is even possible. That Chinese imitation leather jacket is now alarmingly almost bursting at the seams!
Amazing he has time to make these nonsensical comments in between all the donuts he is shoving down his gullet.
Eat the left
Orange man: bad. Fat man: bad.
That's as far as the thought process really goes.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Is the new MAGA position that the US should be friends with NK?
Fighto!
Oh no! Did I offend one of your favourite Communist dictators?