SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said there is no reason for the country to avoid dialogue with the U.S. if Washington stops insisting his country give up nuclear weapons, state news agency KCNA reported on Monday.In a speech at the Supreme People’s Assembly on Sunday, Kim said he still has fond memories of U.S. President Donald Trump, KCNA also reported. The two leaders met three times during Trump’s first presidency.
“If the United States drops the absurd obsession with denuclearising us and accepts reality, and wants genuine peaceful coexistence, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the United States,” Kim was quoted as saying.
It was a matter of survival for the country to build nuclear weapons to safeguard its security in the face of grave threats from the United States and South Korea, Kim said.
He said he rejected recent overtures from Washington and Seoul for dialogue as insincere because their fundamental intent to weaken the North and destroy his regime remains unchanged.
He said a proposal by the South on ending the North’s nuclear programmes in phases was proof of that.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has made peace overtures since taking office in June, saying dialogue with Pyongyang was necessary, and has proposed steps to build confidence and eventually end the North’s nuclear programme.
Lee told Reuters in an interview that there are formidable obstacles to reopening dialogue with the North but he still believed the phased approach on dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear programme was the realistic option.
It was necessary to create the right conditions to bring the North back to the table and Trump has a key role to play in those efforts, Lee said.
(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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