Kim Jong-un: If the US stops clinging to our nuclear weapons, we are willing to negotiate

Reuters reported today that Kim Jong-un once again made a clear statement.

In a speech, he clearly stated that he is not opposed to dialogue with Trump, but the precondition is that the US should first stop trying to deprive North Korea of its nuclear weapons.

He called the US's efforts to push for denuclearization "a ridiculous obsession," and said that North Korea's nuclear weapons are for survival, not for showing off.

Kim Jong-un also said that he still has a good memory of Trump, and called the recent peace proposals from the US and South Korea "false and suspicious."

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said that peace talks are still possible, but the precondition is that North Korea genuinely desires peace.

Comment: For North Korea, nuclear weapons are a strategic shield built under long-term sanctions and security pressure, so it will never back down in negotiations, even defining the US's denuclearization demands as a "ridiculous obsession." The essence is to strengthen its own negotiation leverage through a tough stance and avoid repeating the past mistake of "nuclear for aid" where security commitments were not fulfilled.

On the US side, although there was a brief breakthrough in previous US-North Korea summit meetings, subsequent policies have always wavered between "pressure for denuclearization" and "limited easing," lacking substantial responses to North Korea's security concerns, which has made North Korea very wary of the current peace proposals from the US and South Korea.

The position of the Yoon Suk-yeol government in South Korea appears more passive. On one hand, it needs to follow the US's strategy toward North Korea, and on the other hand, it hopes to promote the peaceful process on the Korean Peninsula to ease security pressures. However, its prerequisite of "North Korea first showing sincerity" is still seen by North Korea as an indirect condition for denuclearization, making it difficult to create a breakthrough in dialogue.

At the root of the issue, the difficulty in resolving the Korean Peninsula problem lies not only in the direct opposition between "denuclearization" and "keeping nuclear weapons," but also in the lack of basic strategic mutual trust among all parties.

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1843943587783748/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.