The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Tuesday that her brother’s relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump was “not bad,” but she rejected the idea of resuming denuclearization talks with Washington.
Kim Yo Jong, in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, acknowledged the personal relationship between the two leaders but said that using it as a basis for denuclearization talks would be “a mockery of the other party.” She emphasized that any attempts to deny North Korea’s status as a nuclear weapons state would be “thoroughly rejected.”
Kim’s remarks responded to a recent report quoting an unnamed White House official who said Trump remains open to dialogue with Kim Jong Un to achieve complete denuclearization. During Trump’s presidency, the two leaders met in high-profile summits, but those talks ultimately failed to produce a nuclear agreement, and North Korea has since expanded its weapons programs.
In April, Trump said he maintained a good relationship with Kim and acknowledged North Korea as “a big nuclear nation.” North Korea declared itself a nuclear weapons state in 2022, enshrining its right to preemptive nuclear strikes in self-defense and amending its constitution to guarantee the permanent growth of its arsenal.
Kim Yo Jong stressed that future engagement with North Korea must acknowledge the “irreversible position” of the country as a nuclear state and its changed geopolitical reality. She suggested that new approaches to dialogue should be based on this understanding. Her statement came shortly after she criticized South Korea’s military alliance with the U.S. and dismissed efforts by South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s administration to improve relations with Pyongyang.