South Korea expressed their willingness to support a possible dialogue between North Korea and the United States, however, made it clear that the commitment to the denuclearization of the peninsula is to maintain.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he was willing to resume dialogue with the United States if they fail to demand that Pyongyang abandon the nuclear weapons program, the North Korean official media reported on Monday.
“If the United States abandon its delirious obsession with denuclearization and, recognizing reality, truly wish to coexist peacefully with us, then there is no reason that we cannot sit at the table with them,” Kim said, according to state news agency KCNA.
“I have good memories of current US President Donald Trump,” he added.
North Korea performed six nuclear tests between 2006 and 2017 and, Since then, he continued to develop his arsenal despite heavy international sanctions.
Pyongyang justifies its military nuclear program with threats that it claims to be targeted by the statesNida and its alliesamong which South Korea.
In January, Kim Jong-un stated that such a program would go on “indefinitely”.
Donald Trump, who had a rare series of meetings with Kim Jong-un during his first term at the White House (2017-2021), has been arranged, since he returned to power in January this year, to resume contact with the North Korean leader, whom he described as he “An intelligent type”.
The two men met for the first time at a historic summit in June 2018 in Singapore; For the second time in Hanoi, Vietname, in February 2019; And for the last time, on the border between the two Koreas, in June 2019.
Such meetings did not result in any advance in relation to a possible denuclearization of North Korea.
Seoul supports dialogue, but maintains the purpose of denuclearization
South Korea expressed, this Monday, the willingness to support a possible dialogue between North Korea and the United Statesreiterating although the commitment to the denuclearization of the peninsula.
“The government will continue to support dialogue between the United States and North Korea and continue to work for a nuclear and peaceless peninsula,” a presidential office official to local news agency Yonhap told anonymous.
Although it is unlikely that Kim Jong-un travels to South Korea, leaders will be able to find themselves in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides the two Koreas, as they did in 2019, during Trump’s first term.
On the other hand, the South Korean Ministry of Unification said that It does not seek hostilities with North Korea.
“The government of South Korea reaffirms its respect for the North Korean regime, will not seek any form of unification by absorption or participate in any hostile act,” said that ministry spokesman Koo Byoung-Sam.
In his speech, Kim Jong-un dismissed any interaction with Seoul and classified the unification of the two Koreas as “unnecessary” despite the reconciliation gestures of the government of South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung.
