North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to implement the “toughest” anti-American policy, state media reported on Sunday, less than a month before Donald Trump takes office as US president.
Trump's return to the White House raises prospects for high-profile diplomacy with North Korea. During his first term, Trump met with Kim three times to discuss North Korea's nuclear program. However, many experts say a quick resumption of the Kim-Trump summit is unlikely, as Trump would focus first on conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. North Korea's support for Russia's war against Ukraine also poses a challenge to efforts to revive diplomacy, experts say.
During a five-day plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party that ended Friday, Kim called the United States “the most reactionary state that regards anti-communism as its unchanging state policy.” Kim said the security partnership between the United States, South Korea and Japan is expanding into “a nuclear military bloc for aggression.”
“This reality clearly shows in which direction we should move and what we should do and how,” Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
He said Kim's speech “clarified the strategy for North Korea to aggressively launch the toughest anti-American counterattack” for its long-term national interests and security.
KCNA did not elaborate on the anti-US strategy. But he said Kim set tasks to strengthen military capability through advances in defense technology and emphasized the need to improve the mental toughness of North Korean soldiers.
Previous meetings between Trump and Kim not only ended their exchanges of fiery rhetoric and threats of destruction, but developed personal connections. Trump once said that he and Kim “fell in love.” But their talks finally collapsed in 2019, when they argued over US-led sanctions on the North.
Since then, North Korea has dramatically increased the pace of its weapons testing activities to build more reliable nuclear missiles aimed at the United States and its allies. The United States and South Korea have responded by expanding their bilateral and also trilateral military exercises involving Japan, prompting sharp rebukes from the North, which views such U.S.-led exercises as invasion rehearsals.
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Further complicating efforts to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for economic and political benefits is its growing military cooperation with Russia.
According to assessments by the United States, Ukraine and South Korea, North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops and conventional weapons systems to support Moscow's war against Ukraine. There are concerns that Russia could give North Korea advanced weapons technology in return, including help to build more powerful nuclear missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed and wounded in fighting in Russia's Kursk region. It was the first significant estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties since the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia began in October.
Russia and China, locked in separate disputes with the United States, have repeatedly blocked U.S.-led efforts to impose more U.N. sanctions on North Korea despite its repeated missile tests in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. the UN.
Last month, Kim said his past negotiations with the United States only confirmed Washington's “immutable” hostility toward his country and described its nuclear buildup as the only way to counter external threats.
© 2024 The Canadian Press