North Korea can talk to US if it stops insisting on denuclearisation: Kim Jong Un

SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said there is no reason for the country to avoid dialogue with the US if Washington stops insisting his country give up nuclear weapons, but he would never abandon the nuclear arsenal to end sanctions, state news agency KCNA reported on Sept 22.

It added that, in a speech at the Supreme People’s Assembly on Sept 21, Mr Kim said: “Personally, I still have fond memories of US President (Donald) Trump.”

The two leaders met three times during Mr Trump’s first presidency.

The comments come at a time the new liberal government in Seoul is urging Mr Trump to take the lead in reopening dialogue with Mr Kim, six years after all peace talks with Pyongyang collapsed over a clash on sanctions and nuclear dismantlement.

"If the United States drops the absurd obsession with denuclearising us and accepts reality, and wants genuine peaceful coexistence, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the United States," Mr Kim was quoted as saying.

It is the first time Mr Kim has mentioned Mr Trump by name since the US President’s inauguration in January, said Ms Rachel Minyoung Lee, a North Korea expert with the US-based Stimson Centre.

“This is an overture,” she said. “It is Kim’s invitation to Trump to rethink US policy on denuclearisation, the implication being that if the US drops denuclearisation, he could sit face to face with Trump.”

Mr Kim’s warm words towards Mr Trump were a contrast with his strident assertion that he will never give up nuclear weapons or engage in dialogue with South Korea, which he has designated a main enemy.

It was a matter of survival for the country to build nuclear weapons to safeguard its security in the face of grave threats from the US and South Korea, Mr Kim said, listing a series of regular military drills by the allies that he said have evolved into exercises for a nuclear war.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said in an interview with Reuters that North Korea was building 15 to 20 nuclear bombs a year, and any deal that froze that manufacturing would be a useful step towards eventually dismantling the programme altogether.

“Based on that, we can proceed to medium-term negotiations for nuclear weapons reductions, and in the long run, once mutual trust is restored and North Korea’s regime-security concerns are reduced, we can pursue denuclearisation,” he said.

Mr Kim bluntly rejected any phased plan, saying recent overtures from Washington and Seoul for dialogue were disingenuous because their fundamental intent to weaken the North and destroy his regime remained unchanged, and that Mr Lee’s phased plan was proof of that.

“The world already knows full well what the United States does after it makes a country give up its nuclear weapons and disarms,” Mr Kim said.

“We will never give up our nuclear weapons.”

‘Conditions for dialogue’

Mr Kim said sanctions had been “a learning experience”, and made his country stronger and more resilient.

North Korea has been under UN sanctions and arms embargoes since its first nuclear test in 2006.

But while the sanctions have squeezed funding for military development, Pyongyang has continued to make advances in building nuclear weapons and powerful ballistic missiles.

“The reality is that the previous approach of sanctions and pressure has not solved the problem; it has worsened it,” Mr Lee told Reuters.

Mr Lee had urged Mr Trump to try and meet Mr Kim when the US President visits South Korea in October for an Asia-Pacific summit, but the Stimson Centre’s Ms Lee said Mr Kim’s remarks seemed aimed at blocking the South’s involvement.

“Perhaps he wants to get ahead of the Lee government and dissuade the Trump administration from cooperating with South Korea by reiterating that South Korea is a separate country and, therefore, cannot be a party to the North Korean nuclear issue,” she said.

The South Korean President said Pyongyang was refusing to talk to the South, and he did not believe North Korea and the US were having concrete discussions, but he believed the phased approach remained the realistic option.

“Our main task now is to create the conditions for dialogue,” Mr Lee said. REUTERS