One of the more bizarre moments of the first Trump presidency was when Donald Trump made a diplomatic opening to North Korea, and its dictator, Kim Jong-un. Trump had a pair of summits with Kim, in 2018 and 2019, with Trump even becoming the first U.S. president to set foot in North Korea on June 30, 2019.
While Trump spoke of receiving a “very beautiful letter” from Kim — and allegedly taking such letters without authorization, as part of the Florida documents case — the summits did not lead to any agreements or diplomatic breakthroughs, nor did it lead to Kim backing off of his nuclear ambitions.
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is no longer interested in discussing nuclear disarmament with the U.S.
NK is now getting everything it needs from Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Trump: Oh, no— my little Rocket Man— what about the love letters you used to send?!https://t.co/YSrnWFMv1l
— Dr. David A. Lustig (@drdave1999) November 22, 2024
And now, it appears unlikely that the opening will be revisited.
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According to a Wall Street Journal report on Friday, Kim has “appeared to rebuff the prospect of reviving his nuclear diplomacy” with the incoming Trump Administration.
“We have already explored every possible avenue in negotiating with the U.S.,” Kim said in a speech this week. He also denounced the “unchanging aggressive and hostile policy” of the United States. “What we ended up confirming was not a superpower’s will for coexistence, but a thorough position based on force and an unchangeable invasive and hostile policy,” the dictator said, per the Associated Press’ reporting and translation.
Trump just became the first sitting U.S. president to step into North Korea as he met Kim Jong Un in the DMZ pic.twitter.com/ve3UGyj0sN
— Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals) June 30, 2019
Per the AP, Kim was speaking at a defense expo, which featured the North Koreans’ latest weapons, including “intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the U.S. mainland as well as artillery systems and drones.”
The Journal added that North Korea has deepened its ties to Russia in the last few years, including sending troops to Russia to fight Ukraine, which makes the North Koreans less in need of sanctions relief, as they did back during the first Trump presidency.
The BBC had reported back in August that an ex-North Korean diplomat and “elite defector” named Ri Il Kyu said that a return of Trump to the White House would represent “a once-in-a-thousand-year opportunity” for North Korea.
“North Korea understands that the only path to its survival, the only way to eliminate the threat of invasion and develop its economy, is to normalise relations with the United States,” Ri told BBC.
Photo courtesy of Political Tribune media library.
