New talks between North Korea and the United States are possible if Washington drops its demand that Pyongyang rid itself of nuclear weapons, Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister suggested in a statement released by state media Tuesday.
Kim Yo Jong said the relationship between her brother and US President Donald Trump “is not bad,” according to a statement released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), leaving room for the two leaders to resume a dialogue from Trump’s first term that saw them meet three times.
Their first meeting yielded a deal in principle to make the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons, but relations faltered when later meetings did not result in movement to lift international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang over its nuclear program.
Since then Kim Jong Un has continued to test and grow his nuclear-capable missile forces.
Kim’s sister said Tuesday that Pyongyang would not compromise on the nuclear issue and that any future talks with Washington would be predicated on the US recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state, something which has historically been a red line for Washington.
“Any attempt to deny the position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state … will be thoroughly rejected,” she said, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Trump earlier this year seem to acknowledge Kim’s nuclear program, calling North Korea a “big nuclear nation.”
But in response to Kim’s sister’s latest statement, a White House spokesperson gave no hint Washington would compromise on Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, saying Trump “remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearized North Korea,” Reuters reported.
Experts see little hope for any resumption of dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington.
“It is difficult to expect the US to drop its denuclearization policy toward North Korea, as doing so would likely have significant and negative effects for international nonproliferation norms and the security of allies,” Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told CNN.
“Considering Trump’s personality, there is possibility that Trump could make a bold decision to make an achievement during his presidential term, but the US cannot ignore how South Korea and Japan would react,” said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.
“Also, even if Trump makes a bold decision, North Korea might be skeptical of whether the next US administration would maintain (Trump’s) decision,” Hong added.
South still ‘the enemy’
Kim’s latest statement came a day after she seem to preclude any easing of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, saying South Korea remains “the enemy” of the North despite recent moves by Seoul to ease tensions along the 38th parallel.
North Korea has “no interest” in talks with the South no matter what proposal is offered, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement released by KCNA.
Kim’s comments mark North Korea’s first official response since the new South Korean government took office on June 4 following months of political turmoil over the disgraced former leader Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration in December.
Yoon said the martial law declaration, which the National Assembly rescinded after six hours, was necessary to fight North Korean influence among opponents to his leadership in the South Korean government.
Conciliatory overtures made since President Lee Jae Myung’s election hadn’t erased how South Korea’s military alliance with the United States had “stained” the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, she added.
The new South Korean president’s reaffirmation of the US alliance shows there is no chance for improved North-South relations, the statement said.
Kim said the new Lee administration would be little different from Yoon’s government, describing what she called its “blind trust” in Seoul’s alliance with Washington.
“There can be no change in our state’s understanding of the enemy, and they cannot turn back the hands of the clock of the history,” Kim said in Monday’s statement.
A South Korean army tank is moved on a pontoon bridge during a US-South Korea joint river-crossing exercise which is a part of the annual Freedom Shield joint military training, near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Yeoncheon, South Korea, March 20, 2025. – Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters
Former President Yoon endorsed a hardline stance against Pyongyang, bolstered by strong South Korean-US military relations, which included ramping up joint military exercises, seeing assets like a US Navy ballistic missile submarine and aircraft carriers visit South Korean ports, and participation in trilateral military exercises with Japan – also a North Korean foe – as well as the US.
In its first official comments on North-South relations under the Lee administration, South Korea’s Unification Ministry on Monday said Seoul would continue to look for ways to engage with Pyongyang.
Unification Ministry spokesperson Koo Byoung-sam noted that Kim’s comments were not especially hostile or mocking, compared to her previous statements on inter-Korean relations.
But, Koo said, it shows that Pyongyang is closely watching the Lee administration’s North Korea policy, while “the wall of mistrust” between the two Koreas is “very high.”
In an attempt to ease tensions, Lee’s government has suspended loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone and stopped the distribution of South Korean leaflets dropped from balloons into the North.
In 2024, North Korea scrapped a longstanding policy of seeking peaceful reunification and blew up roads and bridges that could link the two countries as relations soured.
In response to the road destruction in October, the South Korean military opened fire within the area south of the military demarcation line while announcing it was maintaining “fully readiness posture under cooperation with the US.”
But the new South Korean government will be less reactionary, said Koo, the Unification Ministry spokesperson.
“The government will consistently make efforts to create inter-Korean relations of reconciliation and cooperation and to realize coexistence of peace on the Korean Peninsula without being sensitive to North Korea’s response,” he said.
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com
