{"id":301047,"date":"2025-07-29T11:17:30","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T11:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/301047\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T11:17:30","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T11:17:30","slug":"kim-jong-uns-powerful-sister-says-talks-with-us-possible-if-washington-drops-denuclearization-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/301047\/","title":{"rendered":"Kim Jong Un\u2019s powerful sister says talks with US possible if Washington drops denuclearization demand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seoul, South Korea
\n CNN
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n New talks between North Korea and the United States are possible if Washington drops its demand that Pyongyang rid itself of nuclear weapons, Kim Jong Un\u2019s powerful sister suggested in a statement released by state media Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kim Yo Jong said the relationship between her brother and US President Donald Trump \u201cis not bad,\u201d according to a statement released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), leaving room for the two leaders to resume a dialogue from Trump\u2019s first term that saw them meet three times.\n <\/p>\n

\n Their first meeting yielded a deal in principle to make the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons, but relations faltered when later meetings did not result in movement to lift international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang over its nuclear program.\n <\/p>\n

\n Since then Kim Jong Un has continued to test and grow his nuclear-capable missile forces.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kim\u2019s sister said Tuesday that Pyongyang would not compromise on the nuclear issue and that any future talks with Washington would be predicated on the US recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state, something which has historically been a red line for Washington.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAny attempt to deny the position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state \u2026 will be thoroughly rejected,\u201d she said, using the acronym for the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump earlier this year seem to acknowledge Kim\u2019s nuclear program, calling North Korea a \u201cbig nuclear nation.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But in response to Kim\u2019s sister\u2019s latest statement, a White House spokesperson gave no hint Washington would compromise on Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear arsenal, saying Trump \u201cremains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearized North Korea,\u201d Reuters reported.\n <\/p>\n

\n Experts see little hope for any resumption of dialogue between Pyongyang and Washington.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt is difficult to expect the US to drop its denuclearization policy toward North Korea, as doing so would likely have significant and negative effects for international nonproliferation norms and the security of allies,\u201d Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cConsidering Trump\u2019s personality, there is possibility that Trump could make a bold decision to make an achievement during his presidential term, but the US cannot ignore how South Korea and Japan would react,\u201d said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAlso, even if Trump makes a bold decision, North Korea might be skeptical of whether the next US administration would maintain (Trump\u2019s) decision,\u201d Hong added.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kim\u2019s latest statement came a day after she seem to preclude any easing of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, saying South Korea remains \u201cthe enemy\u201d of the North despite recent moves by Seoul to ease tensions along the 38th parallel.\n <\/p>\n

\n North Korea has \u201cno interest\u201d in talks with the South no matter what proposal is offered, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement released by KCNA.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kim\u2019s comments mark North Korea\u2019s first official response since the new South Korean government took office on June 4 following months of political turmoil over the disgraced former leader Yoon Suk Yeol\u2019s<\/a> martial law declaration in December.\n <\/p>\n

\n Yoon said the martial law declaration, which the National Assembly rescinded after six hours, was necessary to fight North Korean influence among opponents to his leadership in the South Korean government.\n <\/p>\n

\n Conciliatory overtures made since President Lee Jae Myung\u2019s election hadn\u2019t erased how South Korea\u2019s military alliance with the United States had \u201cstained\u201d the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, she added.\n <\/p>\n

\n The new South Korean president\u2019s reaffirmation of the US alliance shows there is no chance for improved North-South relations, the statement said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Kim said the new Lee administration would be little different from Yoon\u2019s government, describing what she called its \u201cblind trust\u201d in Seoul\u2019s alliance with Washington.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere can be no change in our state\u2019s understanding of the enemy, and they cannot turn back the hands of the clock of the history,\u201d Kim said in Monday\u2019s statement.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n Former President Yoon endorsed a hardline stance against Pyongyang, bolstered by strong South Korean-US military relations, which included ramping up joint military exercises, seeing assets like a US Navy ballistic missile submarine<\/a> and aircraft carriers visit South Korean ports, and participation in trilateral military exercises with Japan \u2013 also a North Korean foe \u2013 as well as the US.\n <\/p>\n

\n In its first official comments on North-South relations under the Lee administration, South Korea\u2019s Unification Ministry on Monday said Seoul would continue to look for ways to engage with Pyongyang.\n <\/p>\n

\n Unification Ministry spokesperson Koo Byoung-sam noted that Kim\u2019s comments were not especially hostile or mocking, compared to her previous statements on inter-Korean relations.\n <\/p>\n

\n But, Koo said, it shows that Pyongyang is closely watching the Lee administration\u2019s North Korea policy, while \u201cthe wall of mistrust\u201d between the two Koreas is \u201cvery high.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In an attempt to ease tensions, Lee\u2019s government has suspended loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone and stopped the distribution of South Korean leaflets dropped from balloons into the North.\n <\/p>\n

\n In 2024, North Korea scrapped a longstanding policy of seeking peaceful reunification and blew up roads<\/a> and bridges that could link the two countries as relations soured.\n <\/p>\n

\n In response to the road destruction in October, the South Korean military opened fire within the area south of the military demarcation line while announcing it was maintaining \u201cfully readiness posture under cooperation with the US.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But the new South Korean government will be less reactionary, said Koo, the Unification Ministry spokesperson.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe government will consistently make efforts to create inter-Korean relations of reconciliation and cooperation and to realize coexistence of peace on the Korean Peninsula without being sensitive to North Korea\u2019s response,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seoul, South Korea CNN \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 New talks between North Korea and the United States are possible if Washington…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-301047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114936248440244880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}