North Korean leader Kim Jong Un took a nostalgic trip down memory lane in a recent speech before the Supreme People’s Assembly on Sunday.
Kim extended a notable olive branch to the White House with kind words about President Donald Trump.
“Personally, I still have fond memories of U.S. President [Donald] Trump,” he told North Korean lawmakers.
Kim explained that he is open to dialogue about establishing a “peaceful coexistence” as long as the United States “abandons its delusional obsession with denuclearization.”
“The world already knows well what the United States does after forcing other countries to give up their nuclear weapons and disarm,” he warned. “We will never lay down our nuclear weapons. […] There will be no negotiations, now or ever, about trading anything with hostile countries in exchange for lifting sanctions.”
A key component of North Korean state ideology is the principle of Songun, or “military-first politics.” According to this idea, a revolutionary state must prioritize defensive capabilities above all other considerations to ensure continued independence from imperial powers.
The U.S. has tried for decades to negotiate the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through diplomacy and military threats. However, the Kim dynasty, beginning with North Korea’s founding father, Kim Il-sung, has roundly rejected attempts to roll back the country’s advances in military technology.
However, diplomatic relations without the goal of dismantling North Korea’s nuclear missile program will be a tough sell to Washington, D.C., according to a White House spokesperson.
“President Trump, in his first term, held three historic summits with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un that stabilized the Korean Peninsula and achieved the first-ever leader-level agreement on denuclearization,” the spokesperson told the Washington Examiner last month. “The president retains those objectives and remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearized North Korea.”
XI JINPING BONDS WITH KIM JONG UN OVER ‘COMMON IDEALS’ OF SOCIALISM AT FIRST MEETING IN YEARS
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung implored Trump to help in “establishing peace on the Korean Peninsula” during a meeting at the White House last month.
Trump affirmed he hopes to speak directly with the North Korean leader in the “appropriate future.”
