Kim says NK open to talks with US if denuclearisation demand dropped

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Sunday he would be open to resuming talks with the United States only if Washington abandons its long-standing demand that Pyongyang surrender its nuclear arsenal, state media reported, sharpening a familiar standoff over the peninsula’s future while reopening a narrow diplomatic door under strict conditions. Kim made the remarks in a speech to the Supreme People’s Assembly, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Kim recalled having “fond memories” of U.S. President Donald Trump, with whom he met three times during Trump’s first term, but insisted any negotiations must begin from a U.S. acceptance of North Korea’s nuclear capabilities and a pledge of what he called genuine peaceful coexistence. If the United States discards its delusional obsession with denuclearisation and, based on recognising reality, truly wishes for peaceful coexistence with us, then there is no reason we cannot meet it, KCNA quoted him as saying. He reiterated that North Korea will never give up its nuclear weapons, framing the program as essential to regime survival and saying sanctions had made the country stronger.