Kim Yo-jong Asserts US Must Acknowledge North Korea’s Nuclear Status
Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a high-ranking official in the Workers’ Party of Korea, has called on the United States to formally recognize North Korea as a nuclear-armed nation. She warned that personal ties between her brother and former President Donald Trump should not be leveraged to pressure Pyongyang into denuclearization. Kim emphasized that any future dialogue must acknowledge the country’s permanent nuclear status and its changed geopolitical landscape since Trump’s first term.
Kim’s remarks were published by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Tuesday. In her statement, she cautioned that any future dialogue should be based on the “recognition of the irreversible position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state,” according to KCNA. She also noted that Pyongyang’s capabilities and geopolitical environment have “radically changed” compared to Trump’s first term, which saw historic US-North Korea diplomacy.
Kim further warned that any effort to deny this reality would be “thoroughly rejected,” and that North Korea is “open to any option in defending its present national position.” She acknowledged that “it is by no means beneficial to each other for the two countries possess[ing] nuclear weapons to go in a confrontational direction.”
While acknowledging that the “personal relationship between the head of our state and the present US president is not bad,” Kim cautioned that if the personal relations between the top leaders of the DPRK and the US are to serve the purpose of denuclearization, it can be interpreted as “nothing but a mockery of the other party.”
Kim concluded by stating that if the US fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, a DPRK-US meeting will remain as a “hope” of the US side. The statement reflects the deepening diplomatic tensions that have persisted even after Trump’s tenure, with no lasting agreement having been reached despite the unprecedented diplomacy during his presidency.
North Korea is estimated to have around 50 nuclear weapons and insists that the arsenal is a vital deterrent against a potential incursion by the US and South Korea, which regularly hold military drills near its borders. The country’s stance underscores its continued commitment to maintaining its nuclear program as a strategic tool of national defense.