US has to accept North Korea as nuclear weapons state: Kim Jong Uns sister quashes reports of diplomatic dialogue with Donald Trump
Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, declared North Korea's nuclear weapons status irreversible, rejecting US calls for denuclearisation. She emphasised that any future dialogue must acknowledge Pyongyang's changed geopolitical position and nuclear capabilities.
New Delhi: The influential sister of North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Un has said the United States has to accept North Korea’s "irreversible” status as a nuclear-armed state. She warned that there won't be any denuclearisation with dialogue.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency carried the statement in which Kim Yo Jong said that for any dialogue in future, the US must recognise that Pyongyang’s capabilities and the geopolitical environment had "radically changed” and it should be the most important thing.
She said, "Any attempt to deny the position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state, which was established along with the existence of a powerful nuclear deterrent and fixed by the supreme law reflecting the unanimous will of all the DPRK people, will be thoroughly rejected. The DPRK is open to any option in defending its present national position."
Kim Yo Jung is reportedly the chief of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea's propaganda operations. She said that a confrontation between the US and North Korea is not beneficial and that the latter country should "seek another way of contact based on such new thinking.”
While Kim said that the relationship between US President Donald Trump and her brother was "not bad”, it would be a 'mockery' to use their relations to advance talks on denuclearisation. She said, "If the US fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK-US meeting will remain as a ‘hope’ of the US side."
She made the comments after it was reported that Trump wants to engage with Kim Jong Un for a "fully denuclearised” North Korea. Also, she has dismissed the efforts of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung to mend the relationship with Pyongyang. Notably, Trump has had three face-to-face summits with North Korea's supreme leader in 2018 and 2019, and has said repeatedly that he is interested in resuming dialogue with Kim Jong Un.