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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to implement the “toughest” policy against the US, state media reported on Sunday, less than a month before Donald Trump takes over as president of the USA.
Trump’s return to the White House raises the prospect of high-profile diplomacy with North Korea. During his first term, Trump met with Kim three times to discuss the North’s nuclear program. Many experts, however, say a quick resumption of the Kim-Trump summit is unlikely because Trump would first focus on the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. North Korea support for Russia’s war against Ukraine also challenges efforts to revive diplomacy, experts say.
During a five-day plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party that ended on Friday, Kim called the US “the most reactionary country that considers anti-communism as its unchanging state policy.” Kim said the security partnership of the US, South Korea and Japan was expanding into a “nuclear military bloc for aggression”.
“This reality clearly shows in which direction we need to move forward and what we need to do and how,” Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
It said Kim’s speech “clarified the strategy for the harshest anti-US counter-action to be aggressively launched” by North Korea for its long-term national interests and security.
KCNA has not worked out a strategy against the US. But Kim is said to have set tasks to strengthen military capability through the advancement of defense technology and stressed the need to improve the mental strength of North Korean soldiers.
Previous meetings between Trump and Kim not only ended their exchange of fiery rhetoric and threats of destruction, but also developed personal bonds. Trump once famously said that he and Kim “fell in love.” But their talks eventually collapsed in 2019, as they clashed over US-led sanctions on the North.
North Korea has since sharply increased the pace of its weapons testing activities to build more reliable nuclear missiles that target the US and its allies. The US and South Korea have responded by expanding their bilateral military drills, as well as trilateral exercises involving Japan, drawing sharp criticism from the North, which views such US-led drills as rehearsals for an invasion.
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Further complicating efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for economic and political benefits is deepening military cooperation with Russia.
According to US, Ukrainian and South Korean estimates, North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops and conventional weapons systems in support of Moscow’s war against Ukraine. There are concerns that Russia could in return provide North Korea with advanced weapons technology, including helping to build more powerful nuclear missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed and wounded in the fighting in Russia’s Kursk region. It was the first significant Ukrainian estimate of North Korean casualties since the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia began in October.
Russia and China, which are in separate disputes with the US, have repeatedly blocked US-led attempts to impose additional UN sanctions on North Korea despite its repeated missile tests in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
Last month, Kim said his past talks with the United States only confirmed Washington’s “unchangeable” hostility to his country and described his nuclear buildup as the only way to counter external threats.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
