As Trump returns, North Korean leader recalls ‘every length' in negotiations with US

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has recalled his negotiations with the US, in an apparent first reaction to the Nov. 5 US presidential race victory by Donald Trump.

Kim and Trump held two summits and met three times in Singapore, Vietnam, and at the Demilitarized Zone, which divides the Korean Peninsula, during the Republican winner’s first term.

“We have already gone to every length in negotiations with the US, and what was certain from the outcome was ... the unchanging invasive and hostile policy toward North Korea,” Kim told the opening ceremony of an arms exhibition in Pyongyang on Thursday.

He accused the US of strengthening military alliances and deploying strategic weapons targeting Pyongyang, escalating military pressure and provocations to "extremes,” the Seoul-based Yonhap News reported.

"In light of this reality, (North Korea) realizes every day and every hour that achieving the most powerful military capabilities is the only way to maintain peace and provides a solid guarantee of security and development," said Kim, stressing that Pyongyang will not compromise on the nation’s security.

On display during the exhibition were intercontinental ballistic and hypersonic missiles, as well as drones and multiple rocket launchers.

Over the past four years after Trump was ousted in the 2020 presidential elections, North Korea has closed its ranks with Russia with which it signed a military pact in June, requiring Moscow and Pyongyang to extend military aid in case of an attack by a third party.

Pyongyang has allegedly sent thousands of troops to Moscow to join its war on Ukraine. And reports on Thursday claimed that a senior North Korean general was injured in Russia's western Kursk region, following an airstrike by Kyiv.

Seoul, which has said it will review its ban on arms supplies to Kyiv, claimed on Friday that Moscow provided Pyongyang with anti-air missiles and air defense equipment in "exchange for its troop deployment," according to South Korean National Security Adviser Shin Won-sik.

Russian President Vladimir Putin early this week also sent rare animals as gifts to Kim when Moscow’s energy chief Alexandr Kozlov met with Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.

Meanwhile, the North Korean Foreign Ministry tore apart a "resolution" by the UN General Assembly which it said “distorted and fabricated” the human rights situation in the country.

Strongly rejecting the resolution, the ministry branded “the farce of adopting of the ‘human rights resolution’ led by the US and its followers as a grave politically-motivated provocation encroaching upon the dignity and sovereignty” of North Korea.