North Korea issues chilling warning to Trump admin

Dictator Kim Jong Un’s influential sister has cautioned the United States against trying to revive talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear arsenal, with North Korea warning such efforts would be futile under the second Trump administration.

Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un

In remarks shared by state media, Kim Yo Jong said relations between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un are “not bad” but stressed that any push for denuclearization would be seen as “nothing but a mockery.” She added that North Korea’s nuclear capabilities have expanded significantly since Trump and Kim last spoke. She made clear there would be no repeat of the high-profile summits between the two leaders if denuclearization remains on the agenda.

North Korea

While she did not close the door to bilateral talks with Washington, Kim ruled out similar discussions with South Korea in a separate statement. “If the U.S. fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK-U.S. meeting will remain as a ‘hope’ of the U.S. side,” Kim said, referring to her country by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. She suggested it would be “advisable to seek another way of contact.”

U.S. and North Korea

During Trump held three unprecedented summits with Kim Jong Un during his first term: first in Singapore in 2018, then in Hanoi in 2019 and finally at the Korean Demilitarized Zone later in 2019. At the third meeting, Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to set foot on North Korean soil. The meetings, however, failed to produce a breakthrough: Pyongyang retained its nuclear weapons, and Washington maintained the sanctions that have kept North Korea economically isolated. Kim Yo Jong serves as a senior official on the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party and manages relations with both the U.S. and South Korea. Her comments follow a Yonhap news agency report citing an unnamed White House official who said Trump “remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearized North Korea.”

‘Progress’

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed that sentiment last month, saying Trump would like to see “progress” during his current term on the summits he initiated in his first. Marking the 72nd anniversary of the end of the Korean War, Trump reflected on his historic DMZ crossing, saying, “I was proud to become the first sitting president to cross this Demilitarized Zone into North Korea.” He also reaffirmed the strength of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, declaring, “Although the evils of communism still persist in Asia, American and South Korean forces remain united in an ironclad alliance to this day.”

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