N. Korea says Trump-Kim relationship 'not bad' but rejects nuclear talks
"I do not want to deny the fact that the personal relationship between the head of our state and the U.S. president is not bad," Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
"However, if the personal relations between the top leaders of the DPRK and the U.S. are to serve the purpose of denuclearization, it can be interpreted as nothing but a mockery of the other party," she said.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.
"Shortly ago, a person in authority of the White House said ... that [Trump] is still open to dialogue with the DPRK leader for achieving the complete denuclearization of the DPRK," Kim said. "Any attempt to deny the position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state ... will be thoroughly rejected."
Kim appeared to be responding to a Yonhap news agency report Saturday that quoted an unnamed White House official as saying Trump "remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearized North Korea."
During Trump's first term, the two leaders held a pair of high-profile summits and met briefly a third time at the DMZ. The diplomatic outreach failed to result in a nuclear deal, however, and Pyongyang has accelerated the development of its weapons programs in the intervening years.
In April, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that there had been communication with North Korea and that the two sides would "probably do something at some point."
"I have a very good relationship with [Kim]," Trump said. "I think it's very important. He's a big nuclear nation and he's a very smart guy."
In September 2022, the North passed a law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state and giving it the right to conduct a preemptive nuclear strike in self-defense. Kim called the decision "irreversible" and later amended the country's constitution to enshrine the permanent growth of Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal.
In her statement Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong said any efforts to engage with North Korea would require acknowledging "the hard fact that its capabilities and geopolitical environment have radically changed."
"The recognition of the irreversible position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state ... should be a prerequisite for predicting and thinking everything in the future," she said. "It would be advisable to seek another way of contact on the basis of such new thinking."
Kim's remarks came one day after she released a statement condemning Seoul's military alliance with Washington and saying that Pyongyang had "no interest" in efforts by the administration of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung to improve relations.
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