North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, said he could improve relations with the US if Washington recognised his country as a nuclear weapons state, as Pyongyang concluded its biggest political event in five years. Kim made the remarks at the ruling Workers’ Party congress, a seven-day meeting that ended Wednesday.
In speeches during the congress, Kim reaffirmed his intention to expand North Korea’s nuclear forces and consolidate what he called its “status as a nuclear-armed state,” according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. In a message apparently directed at Washington, Kim said his country could pursue either “peaceful coexistence” or a “permanent standoff”, depending on the attitude it faced.
“I don’t see any reason not to get along well with the US if it withdraws its hostile policy toward us and respects our current status” as a nuclear-armed country, Kim said in an extensive speech over the weekend.
North Korea has long insisted it should be recognised as a nuclear power and has demanded an end to US-led international sanctions. During the party meeting, Kim appeared to reaffirm that position with greater confidence, as Pyongyang’s diplomatic fortunes have improved following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
North Korea has since supplied Russia with thousands of troops and millions of artillery shells, according to officials in South Korea and the US. In return, Moscow has provided food, oil, weapons technology and other forms of assistance. The two countries have also revived their Cold War-era mutual defence treaty, strengthening ties that had weakened in earlier decades.
At the same time, China has drawn closer to North Korea amid intensifying competition between Washington and Beijing. Beijing has maintained diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang while deepening coordination with Moscow.
Kim’s diplomatic leverage has grown in this shifting geopolitical environment. At the congress, he signalled that relations with Washington could improve under certain conditions, while maintaining the North’s long-standing demand for recognition of its nuclear status.
Washington has repeatedly indicated interest in restarting negotiations with Pyongyang. Trump, who held three meetings with Kim during his time in office last time, has spoken about resuming high-level talks and previously referred to North Korea as a “nuclear power”. North Korea has not formally responded to those overtures, though Kim has said he had “good memories” of his meetings with Trump.
“The prospects for North Korea-US relations depend entirely on the attitude of the US side,” Kim said during the congress.
At the last party congress, in 2021, the situation looked far less favourable for Kim. International sanctions had severely strained North Korea’s economy, and his earlier diplomacy with Washington had failed to produce relief. Talks between Kim and Trump collapsed in 2019 without an agreement on sanctions or denuclearisation. Soon after, the pandemic further isolated the country and deepened economic difficulties.
Following the breakdown of those negotiations, North Korea cut off dialogue with the United States and accelerated the expansion of its nuclear and missile programmes. It also hardened its stance toward South Korea, which had previously acted as an intermediary during diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington.
Pyongyang has since declared that it no longer views South Korea as part of the same nation but as a hostile state that could be targeted with nuclear weapons if war broke out.
At the congress, Kim appeared to reaffirm that policy despite recent efforts by South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, to revive inter-Korean dialogue. Since taking office in June, Lee has introduced unilateral steps aimed at easing tensions, including halting propaganda broadcasts along the border.
Kim dismissed those gestures as “deceptive”.
“We will never have a cause for discussing things with South Korea, which is the most hostile entity,” he said in the weekend speech.
Analysts in the region said Kim’s comments suggested Pyongyang was leaving the door open to talks with Washington while sidelining Seoul from any future negotiations.
His remarks indicated North Korea was “keeping the possibility of dialogue open with the US,” Yang Moo-jin, a former president of the Seoul-based University of North Korean Studies, said. But, he added, Pyongyang appeared intent on dealing with Washington directly rather than through South Korea.
“Now we are confident that we can have both candies and bullets,” Ri Il-hwan, a senior Workers’ Party official, said during the congress as Kim was unanimously re-elected party general secretary.
The New York Times