North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed "fond memories" of U.S. President Donald Trump and signaled openness to future talks with the United States – on condition he retains his nuclear arsenal.
Kim met Trump 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 on its atomic weapons.
The U.S. demand that Kim give up his banned weapons has long been a sticking point between the two countries, with Pyongyang under successive rounds of U.N. sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs.
"If the United States discards its delusional obsession with denuclearization and, based on recognizing reality, truly wishes for peaceful coexistence with us, then there is no reason we cannot meet it," Kim said, according to a report Monday by the official Korean Central News Agency.
"I still personally hold fond memories of the current U.S. president, Trump," Kim added, in a wide-ranging speech to the country's Supreme People's Assembly.
