North Korean chief Kim Jong-un stated he was open to future talks with the US if Washington drops its demand that the nation hand over its nuclear weapons, state media stated on Monday.
Kim additionally stated he had “fond recollections” of US President Donald Trump, who he met thrice for high-profile summits throughout Trump’s first time period, earlier than talks collapsed in Hanoi in 2019 over what concessions Pyongyang was ready to make.
“If the US discards its delusional obsession with denuclearisation and, based mostly on recognising actuality, actually needs for peaceable coexistence with us, then there isn’t any purpose we can not meet it,” Kim stated, in line with the official Korean Central Information Company.
The demand that Kim hand over his nuclear arsenal has lengthy been a sticking level between the 2 international locations, with Pyongyang underneath successive rafts of United Nations sanctions over its banned weapons programmes.
Kim stated sanctions had solely helped the North in “rising stronger, constructing endurance and resistance that can’t be crushed by any strain”.
“I nonetheless personally maintain fond recollections of the present US president, Trump,” Kim stated in a wide-ranging speech to the nation’s rubber-stamp parliament.