North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to implement the “toughest” anti-US policies, state media reported on Sunday, less than a month earlier Donald Trump takes office as US President.
Trump’s return to the White House raises the prospect of high-profile diplomacy with North Korea. During his first term, Trump met with Kim three times to discuss the North’s nuclear program. However, many experts consider it unlikely that the summit between Kim and Trump will resume soon, as Trump would initially focus on the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. North Korea Experts say support for Russia’s war against Ukraine also poses a challenge to efforts to revive diplomacy.
During a five-day plenary session of the ruling Workers’ Party that ended on Friday, Kim called the United States “the most reactionary state that considers anti-communism as its unchangeable state policy.” Kim said the security partnership between the United States, South Korea and Japan was expanding into “a nuclear military bloc for aggression.”
“This reality clearly shows in which direction we should move forward and what we should do and how,” Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
It said Kim’s speech “clarified the strategy for North Korea to aggressively act against the United States for its long-term national interests and security.”
KCNA did not elaborate on the anti-US strategy. But it said Kim outlined tasks to strengthen military capabilities through advances in defense technology and stressed the need to improve the mental strength of North Korean soldiers.
The previous meetings between Trump and Kim had not only put an end to their exchange of heated rhetoric and threats of destruction, but personal connections had also developed. Trump once said he and Kim “fell in love.” But their talks ultimately collapsed in 2019 when they argued over U.S.-led sanctions against the North.
North Korea has since significantly increased the pace of its weapons testing activities to build more reliable nuclear missiles for the United States and its allies. The United States and South Korea responded by expanding their military bilateral and trilateral exercises involving Japan, drawing strong criticism from the North, which views such U.S.-led exercises as rehearsals for invasion.
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Efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons in return for economic and political benefits are further complicated by deepening military cooperation with Russia.
According to estimates by the United States, Ukraine and South Korea, North Korea has sent more than 10,000 soldiers and conventional weapons systems to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine. There are concerns that Russia could provide North Korea with advanced weapons technology in return, including help building more powerful nuclear missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed and wounded in fighting in Russia’s Kursk region. It was Ukraine’s first significant estimate of North Korean casualties since North Korean troops began stationing in Russia in October.
Russia and China, embroiled in separate disputes with the United States, have repeatedly blocked U.S.-led efforts to impose further U.N. sanctions on North Korea, even as the country has repeatedly conducted missile tests in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Last month, Kim said his past negotiations with the United States only confirmed Washington’s “unwavering” hostility toward his country and described its nuclear buildup as the only way to counter external threats.
&Copy 2024 The Canadian Press
