Comments from North Korea’s leader come as South Korea’s Lee Jae Myung says he could accept a deal that sees the North retain its nuclear weapons
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has suggested he would be open to talks with the US, while South Korea’s president has hinted he would accept a deal between Kim and Donald Trump that allowed the North to retain its existing nuclear weapons.
In a speech to the Supreme People’s Assembly on Sunday, Kim said he still had “fond memories” of Trump, whom he met three times during Trump’s first term as US president.
Those talks failed to halt North Korea’s nuclear programme and triggered a breakdown in 2019 of high-level negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington, while Kim has since formed stronger diplomatic and military ties with Russia and China.
But in an apparent sign that the door to dialogue has reopened – if only slightly – Kim said there was “no reason for us not to sit down with the United States”, the state-run KCNA news agency reported on Monday.
