North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he was open to future talks with the United States if Washington drops its demand that the country give up its nuclear weapons, state media said on Monday.
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Kim also said he had “fond memories” of US President Donald Trump, who he met three times for high-profile summits during Trump’s first term, before talks collapsed in Hanoi in 2019 over what concessions Pyongyang was prepared to make.
“If the United States discards its delusional obsession with denuclearisation and, based on recognising reality, truly wishes for peaceful coexistence with us, then there is no reason we cannot meet it,” Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
The demand that Kim give up his nuclear arsenal has long been a sticking point between the two countries, with Pyongyang under successive rafts of United Nations sanctions over its banned weapons programmes.
Kim said sanctions had only helped the North in “growing stronger, building endurance and resistance that cannot be crushed by any pressure”.
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“I still personally hold fond memories of the current US president, Trump,” Kim said in a wide-ranging speech to the country’s rubber-stamp parliament.