SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to implement the “strongest” anti-American policy on Sunday, less than a month before U.S. President Donald Trump takes office, state media reported.
Trump’s return to the White House raises the prospect of high-profile diplomacy with North Korea. During his first term, President Trump met with Chairman Kim three times and discussed the North Korean nuclear issue. However, many experts say it is unlikely that the Kim-Trump summit will resume soon, as the president will focus first on Ukraine and the Middle East conflict. North Korea’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine also poses a challenge to efforts to restore diplomacy, experts say.
At the five-day Labor Party plenary meeting that ended Friday, Chairman Kim called the United States “the most reactionary country that makes anti-communism its unchanging national policy.” Chairman Kim said the U.S.-South Korea-Japan security alliance was expanding into a “nuclear military bloc for invasion.”
Chairman Kim said, “This reality clearly shows what direction we should move in, what we should do, and how we should do it,” the Korean Central News Agency reported.
Chairman Kim’s speech said North Korea “has made clear its strategy to aggressively launch the strongest anti-American response strategy” for its long-term national interests and security.
KCNA did not elaborate on the anti-American strategy. However, Chairman Kim presented the task of strengthening military power through the development of defense technology and emphasized the need to improve the mental toughness of the North Korean military.
Trump’s previous meeting with Kim not only ended an exchange of heated rhetoric and threats of destruction, but also fostered a personal relationship. Trump famously said that he and Chairman Kim were “in love.” However, talks between the two ultimately broke down in 2019 over US-led sanctions against North Korea.
Since then, North Korea has rapidly increased the pace of its weapons testing activities to create more reliable nuclear missiles aimed at the United States and its allies. The United States and South Korea responded by expanding bilateral and trilateral military exercises involving Japan, and received a strong rebuke from North Korea, which viewed the U.S.-led training as an invasion exercise.
A more complex effort to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for economic and political benefits involves deepening military cooperation with Russia.
North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops and conventional weapons systems to support Moscow’s war on Ukraine, according to assessments by the United States, Ukraine and South Korea. There are concerns that Russia could provide North Korea with advanced weapons technology in return, including support for the development of more powerful nuclear missiles.
We need your support
Support HuffPost
Already participated? Please log in to hide this message.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that 3,000 North Korean soldiers were killed and wounded in fighting that took place in Russia’s Kursk region last week. This is Ukraine’s first significant estimate of North Korean casualties since North Korean troops began sending troops to Russia last October.
Russia and China, which are engaged in a separate dispute with the United States, have ignored UN Security Council resolutions and repeatedly blocked the United Nations, led by the United States, from pursuing additional sanctions against North Korea despite repeated missile tests.
Last month, Kim said his past negotiations with the United States had only confirmed America’s “unchangeable” hostility toward his country, and he described building up his nuclear arsenal as the only way to counter external threats.
