The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dismissed the U.S.’s intent to resume diplomacy on North Korea’s denuclearisation, saying that the North flatly opposes any attempt to deny its position as a nuclear-armed state.
In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo Jong said personal relations between her brother and US President Donald Trump were not bad. But she said if their relations are to serve the purpose of North Korea’s denuclearisation, North Korea would view it as nothing but a mockery.
Kim Yo Jong said, if the U.S. fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea-U.S. meeting will remain a hope of the U.S. side. She said she was responding to reported comments by a U.S. official that Trump is open to talks on denuclearisation.
“I do not want to deny the fact that the personal relationship between the head of our state and the present US president is not bad,” she said. But Kim added, “It is worth taking into account the fact that the year 2025 is neither 2018 nor 2019.”
She dismissed the US intent to resume diplomacy on North Korea’s denuclearisation, saying Tuesday the North flatly opposes any attempt to deny its position as a nuclear weapons state.
If it is used for that purpose, “it can be interpreted as nothing but a mockery of the other party,” she said, urging the United States to recognise the North as a “nuclear weapons state”.
“Any attempt to deny the position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state which was established along with the existence of a powerful nuclear deterrent and fixed by the supreme law reflecting the unanimous will of all the DPRK people will be thoroughly rejected,” she said, referring to her country by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.