North Korea’s Kim says could ‘get along’ with US but shuns South Korea
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called South Korea “most hostile enemy” and ruled out discussions with its neighbour.
PHOTO: AFP
SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said North Korea could “get along well” with the United States if Washington acknowledges its nuclear status, but dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, state media reported on Feb 26.
Speculation is mounting that US President Donald Trump may seek a meeting with Mr Kim when he travels to China in April.
Mr Kim made a direct appeal to the United States as a landmark congress
If Washington “respects our country’s current status as stipulated in the Constitution... and withdraws its hostile policy... there is no reason why we cannot get along well with the United States”, Mr Kim said, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
But Mr Kim struck a far more combative tone when he addressed South Korea.
North Korea has “absolutely no business dealing with South Korea, its most hostile entity” and will permanently exclude South Korea from the category of compatriots”, Mr Kim said.
“As long as South Korea cannot escape the geopolitical conditions of having a border with us, the only way to live safely is to give up everything related to us and leave us alone.”
North Korea’s latest remarks “signal an intention to pursue relations with the US independently, without going through South Korea,” Professor Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.
Mr Kim is also making clear that he will “reject any negotiations premised on denuclearisation”, Prof Yang added.
North Korea’s nuclear programme has come before almost everything else in the nation for decades, even when food stocks have dried up and famine has taken hold.
High-stakes summits, crippling sanctions and prolonged diplomatic pressure have all failed to convince Pyongyang to surrender its nuclear arsenal.
Mr Trump stepped up his courtship of Mr Kim during a tour of Asia in 2025, saying he was “100 per cent” open to a meeting.
Mr Trump even bucked decades of US policy by conceding that North Korea was “sort of a nuclear power”.
A Trump-Kim meeting in April would mark a major breakthrough after years of deadlocked diplomacy
‘Grand’ parade
Their Hanoi summit in 2019 collapsed as the pair failed to come to terms on sanctions relief – and what nuclear concessions North Korea might make in return.
Mr Kim appeared alongside China’s Xi Jinping
Pyongyang has particularly drawn much closer to Moscow, sending thousands of troops to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine.
A “grand” military parade marked the end of the Workers’ Party congress, a landmark event that directs state efforts on everything from foreign policy to war planning.
Pyongyang said a range of military units took part in the event, including troops who fought in Ukraine and those stationed near the inter-Korean border.
Held just once every five years, the days-long congress offers a rare glimpse into the workings of a nation where even mundane details are shrouded in secrecy.
“Our military will immediately launch a fierce retaliatory attack against any military hostile act committed by any force that infringes upon the sovereignty... of our country,” Mr Kim said at the parade. AFP
