President Donald Trump said in a Jan. 1 tweet that he looks forward to meeting again with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, after Kim said he’s “always ready to sit together with the U.S. president.”
Trump referenced a PBS News Hour report that said Kim had promised not to “make, test or give away nuclear weapons,” and that he is looking forward to meeting with his U.S. counterpart.
“I also look forward to meeting with Chairman Kim who realizes so well that North Korea possesses great economic potential!” Trump said in his tweet.
At their landmark summit in Singapore in June, Kim and Trump vowed to work toward denuclearization and build “lasting and stable” peace.
During a Jan. 2 cabinet meeting, Trump said that if he hadn’t sat down with Kim, there would have been a “war” in Asia.
In a nationally televised New Year’s address, Kim emphasized achieving their common goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, but warned he may have to take an alternative path if U.S. sanctions and pressure against the country continue. Kim said denuclearization is his “firm will” and that North Korea “declared at home and abroad that we would neither make and test nuclear weapons any longer nor use and proliferate them.”
Kim added that Pyongyang had “taken various practical measures” and if Washington responded “with trustworthy measures and corresponding practical actions ... bilateral relations will develop wonderfully at a fast pace.
“I am always ready to sit together with the U.S. president anytime in the future, and will work hard to produce results welcomed by the international community without fail,” he said.
However, he warned that North Korea might be “compelled to explore a new path” to defend its sovereignty if the United States “seeks to force something upon us unilaterally ... and remains unchanged in its sanctions and pressure.”
It wasn’t clear what Kim meant by “a new path.”
Asked for a reaction, a U.S. State Department official declined to comment.
South Korea’s presidential office, however, welcomed Kim’s speech, saying it carried his “firm will” to advance relations with Seoul and Washington.
Trump has said a second summit with Kim is likely this month or in February, although he wrote on Twitter last month that he was “in no hurry.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made several trips to Pyongyang last year, but the two sides have yet to reschedule a meeting between him and senior North Korean official Kim Yong Chol after an abrupt cancellation in November.
Pyongyang has demanded that Washington lift sanctions and declare an official end to the 1950-1953 Korean War, in response to its initial, unilateral steps toward denuclearization, including dismantling its only known nuclear testing site and a key missile engine facility.
Sanctions
U.S. officials have said the extent of initial North Korean steps weren’t confirmed and could be easily reversed. Washington has halted some large-scale military exercises with Seoul to aid negotiations, but has called for strict global sanctions enforcement on impoverished North Korea until its full, verifiable denuclearization.Kim’s reference to pledges not to make nuclear weapons could indicate a first moratorium on such weapons production, although it wasn’t clear if that was conditional. While Pyongyang conducted no nuclear or missile tests last year, satellite images have pointed to continued activity at related facilities.
The U.S. special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, reiterated last month that Washington had no intention of easing sanctions but had agreed to help South Korea send flu medication to North Korea, saying such cooperation could help advance nuclear diplomacy.
Analysts said Kim’s message sent clear signals that North Korea is willing to stay in talks with Washington and Seoul this year—but on its own terms.
“North Korea seems determined in 2019 to receive some sort of sanctions relief ... The challenge, however, is will Team Trump be willing to back away from its position of zero sanctions relief?” said Harry Kazianis of the Washington-based Center for the National Interest. “Kim’s remarks seem to suggest his patience with America is wearing thin.”
After racing toward the goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States in 2017, Kim used last year’s New Year speech to warn that “a nuclear button is always on the desk of my office” and spoke of focusing on mass producing nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles.
But he also offered to send a delegation to the 2018 Winter Olympics in the South in February, setting off a flurry of diplomacy that included three summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and the meeting with Trump in June.
This year, Kim said inter-Korean relations have entered a “completely new phase,” and offered to resume key inter-Korean economic projects banned under international and South Korean sanctions, without conditions.
Holly Kellum contributed to this report.
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