North Korea does ‘not care’ about Trump’s comments that he has good ties with Kim Jong Un

SEOUL – North Korea’s state media rebuffed comments that former US president Donald Trump made about good ties with leader Kim Jong Un, saying “we do not care”, and warned that its nuclear arsenal stands ready for any US leader.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary on July 24 that while Trump tried to advance personal relations, Pyongyang saw US policy as remaining hostile, adding that the former president “did not bring about any substantial positive change”.

The comments are the first from North Korea since Trump touted his personal ties with Mr Kim when he addressed the Republican National Convention last week.

Trump said he got along with Mr Kim, who probably wanted the former president back in the White House. “I think he misses me, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said.

The KCNA commentary said personal relations and diplomacy should be kept separate.

“Even if any administration takes office in the US, the political climate, which is confused by the infighting of the two parties, does not change and, accordingly, we do not care about this,” the commentary said.

In 2017, Trump pledged to unleash “fire and fury” against Mr Kim for tests of nuclear bombs and missiles to deliver them to the US, while KCNA called him a “dotard” and labelled his envoys “gangsters”.

But after

Mr Kim and Trump held a historic summit in Singapore in 2018,

the tone changed dramatically, with North Korean officials saying the two leaders had a “mysteriously wonderful” chemistry.

In Singapore, they reached a bare-bones declaration for denuclearisation. Mr Kim later briefly halted testing missiles and the US scaled back joint military drills with South Korea that had angered Pyongyang.

But Mr Kim made no concrete moves to wind down his arsenal. Meanwhile, he kept adding to his stockpile of fissile material and began testing a new series of modernised, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles soon after Trump abruptly halted

a second round of talks with Mr Kim in Vietnam in 2019.

“North Korea is eagerly awaiting Trump’s re-election,” Mr Ri Il Gyu, a former North Korean diplomat who defected to South Korea in November, said in an interview with Yonhap News.

Its Foreign Ministry is likely preparing for negotiations if Trump returns to the White House, Mr Ri said, adding that he expects his former colleagues would face “an uphill battle” in trying to improve relations.

Since taking office, the Biden administration has worked to improve security ties between the US’ two main allies in the region, Japan and South Korea, while making shows of American military might and warning Mr Kim that the use of nuclear weapons would mean the end of his rule in North Korea.

Mr Kim has ignored calls from US President Joe Biden’s White House to return to the bargaining table as he advanced his arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Mr Kim has also received support from his economy and military from Russia in exchange for munitions to help Moscow with its assault on Ukraine, the US and its allies have said. 

North Korea has yet to comment on Mr Biden’s decision not to seek re-election and has made no mention of Vice-President Kamala Harris on its major state media outlets. Bloomberg