North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to implement the “strongest anti-American policy”, state media reported on Sunday, less than a month before Donald Trump takes office as US president.
Trump’s return to the White House raises the possibility of high-level diplomacy with North Korea. During his first term, Trump has met with Kim three times For talks on North Korea’s nuclear program. However, many experts say a quick resumption of the Kim-Trump summit is unlikely because Trump will first focus on the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. Experts say North Korea’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine also poses a challenge to efforts to revive diplomacy.
During a five-day full meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party that ended on Friday, Kim described the United States as “the most reactionary country for which anti-communism is an established state policy.” Kim said Security partnership between the United States, South Korea, and Japan It expands into a “nuclear military bloc of aggression.”
“This reality clearly shows in which direction we should advance, what we should do and how,” Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
She said Kim’s speech “made clear the strategy of the strongest counter-US response that North Korea will forcefully launch” for its national interests and long-term security.
The Korean Central News Agency did not elaborate on the anti-American strategy. But she said Kim set tasks to enhance military capability through advances in defense technology and stressed the need to improve the mental strength of North Korean soldiers.
Previous meetings between Trump and Kim not only put an end to the exchange of fiery rhetoric and threats of destruction, but also developed personal relationships. Trump once said that he and Kim “fell in love.” But their talks eventually collapsed in 2019, as they disagreed over US-led sanctions on the North.
Since then, North Korea has sharply increased the pace of its weapons testing activities to build more reliable nuclear missiles targeting the United States and its allies. The United States and South Korea responded by expanding their own bilateral military exercises and also trilateral exercises including Japan, drawing strong criticism from North Korea, which views such US-led exercises as invasion rehearsals.
Further complicating efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for economic and political benefits is its deepening military cooperation with Russia.
According to American, Ukrainian and South Korean assessments. North Korea sent more than 10,000 soldiers and conventional weapons systems to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine. There are fears that Russia could give North Korea advanced weapons technology in return, including help in building more powerful nuclear missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that 3,000 North Korean soldiers were killed and wounded in fighting in Russia’s Kursk region. This is Ukraine’s first significant estimate of North Korean casualties since North Korean forces began deploying in Russia in October.
Russia and China, which are locked in separate disputes with the United States, have repeatedly blocked US-led efforts to impose more UN sanctions on North Korea despite its repeated missile tests in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
Last month, Kim said his previous negotiations with the United States only confirmed Washington’s “unwavering” hostility toward his country, and described his nuclear buildup as the only way to confront external threats.
