Kim Jong-un reiterates plans to denuclearize but will seek 'new way' if US doesn't keep promises

Daniel Chaitin
Washington Examiner
Mon, 31 Dec 2018 18:15 UTC

© Kevin Lim/The Strait Times/Handout/Getty Images

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned his rogue regime could be forced to "seek a new way" if the U.S. doesn't live up to its promises.

In a New Year's speech broadcast on North Korea state television, Kim, wearing a suit and tie, said he is open to meet with President Trump again even as he said denuclearization talks are in jeopardy due to "sanctions and pressure."

"I am always ready to sit down again with the U.S. president at any time and will make efforts to produce an outcome that the international community would welcome," Kim said, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency. "(But) we could be left with no choice but to seek a new way if the U.S. does not make good on its promises, misjudges our patience, while seeking to force things unilaterally and clinging to sanctions and pressure."

Kim called for the U.S. and South Korea to end joint military exercises.

Kim held an unprecedented summit with Trump in Singapore where the pair signed an agreement committing to work toward "a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula."

In the intervening months since the June Trump-Kim summit, there have been setbacks, including canceled meetings, Pyongyang telling Washington to back off criticisms of human rights abuses in North Korea, and the hermit nation venting frustration with sanctions. Earlier this month, North Korea indicated it was willing to halt any progress toward denuclearization unless the U.S. removed both its forces and its "nuclear threat" from the Korean Peninsula.

Meanwhile, Trump has signaled optimism as North Korea has not launched any missiles or nuclear tests in 2018 after an active 2017. He tweeted on Christmas Eve that "progress [is] being made" with the rogue regime amid a push to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and that he looks forward to another summit with Kim.

Kim's speech comes after he sent a rare year-end letter to South Korean President Moon Jae-in saying he is willing to meet again next year to discuss denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula.

Comment: Kim also said the following:

The North Korean leader made it clear that going back to saber-rattling is not what he wants: "If the US responds to our active and preemptive efforts with trustworthy steps and corresponding behavior, [North Korea-US relations] will move forward at an excellent and fast pace," he stated, as cited by Yonhap.

"We will never tolerate outside interferences and interventions intended to block our way toward reconciliation, unity and the unification of our people, while trying to make our relations scummy to their states and interests," the North Korean leader said, adding that "significant" agreements achieved during 2018's three inter-Korean summits could be "regarded as non-aggression treaty."