Kim Jong Un Appears To Close North Korea-U.S. Negotiations Door, but Not Slam It

Jan. 1, 2020 (EIRNS)—North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un has not yet delivered an expected national New Year’s address, but his closing speech to a party leadership conference appears to pose a serious challenge for U.S. President Donald Trump if Trump wants negotiations on denuclearization to continue. Other major nations may have to directly participate.

Kim said North Korea is no longer in a “moratorium” on nuclear and long-range missile testing. He was quoted by state news agency KCNA, “We should more actively push forward the project for developing strategic weapons”—if indeed this project was ever actually paused during 2019. KCNA said he “confirmed that the world will witness a new strategic weapon to be possessed by the D.P.R.K. in the near future.” Kim is also quoted saying his country “will shift to a shocking actual action to make it [America] pay for the pains sustained by our people so far, and for the development so far restrained.”

Kim added to this reference to UN and U.S. sanctions blocking of economic development, his own calls for belt-tightening, a return to the policy of internal development with military readiness, and improvements in economic management.

Kim left the denuclearization door open a small crack: KCNA quoted him saying, “The scope and depth of bolstering our deterrent will be properly coordinated depending on the U.S. future attitude to the D.P.R.K.”

The Trump-Kim “Singapore Spirit” from their June 12, 2018 summit may have been irretrievably wrecked by National Security Adviser John Bolton’s later outrageous “Libya model” claim for the American aim for denuclearization, and Bolton’s ultra-provocative conduct around the second summit this past February in Hanoi. The proposals to Pyongyang by President Trump’s envoy Stephen Biegun since then have been unable to reverse the effects of Bolton’s disastrous actions, which were exacerbated by Senate Democrats’ attacks on Trump during the Vietnam summit.

Trump could agree to more complete cooperation in the negotiations with some among China, Russia, Japan, and South Korea. Russia and China on Dec. 19 moved at the UN for relaxation of some UN sanctions. In President Trump’s present political fight against a British Empire coup attempt, he could not agree to this.