North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said he had “good memories” of President Trump and saw no reason not to meet him again — as long as the United States stops insisting on dismantling his country’s nuclear arsenal.
Mr. Kim’s remarks — contained in his speech before the North Korean parliament on Sunday and reported by state media on Monday — came days after Mr. Trump said he would travel to South Korea in late October for a regional summit meeting.
Mr. Trump, who met Mr. Kim three times in 2018 and 2019, has repeatedly since his return to the White House expressed a willingness to meet Mr. Kim again, boasting of his “good relationship” with the North Korean dictator. North Korea too has reported that Mr. Kim’s relations with Mr. Trump were “not bad.” But the speech on Sunday marked the first time since the American leader began his second term that Mr. Kim personally commented on their relationship.
“Personally, I still have good memories of U.S. President Trump,” Mr. Kim said during his speech on Sunday. “If the U.S. drops its hollow obsession with denuclearization and wants to pursue peaceful coexistence with North Korea based on the recognition of reality, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the U.S.”
Mr. Kim saved some of his harshest words for South Korea, snubbing calls from the South’s leader, Lee Jae Myung, for inter-Korean dialogue. He said the North would never sit down with the South for talks or discuss the reunification of the divided Korean Peninsula.
“We will never unify with a country that entrusts its politics and defense to a foreign power,” he said, referring to South Korea’s military alliance with the United States.
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