North Korea says Trump-Kim ties 'not bad,' urges US new approach

Soo-Hyang Choi, Bloomberg News on Jul 28, 2025

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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said relations between its leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump are “not bad” but any attempt to resume dialogue between the two countries should start from recognizing the North as a nuclear power.

In a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency on Tuesday, Kim Yo Jong — the sister of leader Kim — said the United States should start acknowledging the North’s “radically changed” capabilities and that Pyongyang is open to “any option” to defend its national interest.

“I do not want to deny the fact that the personal relationship between the head of our state and the present U.S. president is not bad,” she said. But Kim added, “it is worth taking into account the fact that the year 2025 is neither 2018 nor 2019.”

Trump and Kim Jong Un met in person three times during the U.S. president’s first term, but the discussions didn’t persuade Kim to slow the development of his nuclear weapons program. North Korea has since rebuffed the idea of sitting down with the U.S. again and has emerged as a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, supporting his war on Ukraine.

North Korea possesses a growing arsenal of nuclear weapons, developed in defiance of international sanctions. Its nuclear program includes both atomic bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to reach the U.S. mainland. Pyongyang justifies its ambitions as a deterrent against perceived threats, especially from the U.S. and South Korea.

In a shift from past rhetoric ruling out any engagement, Kim Yo Jong said that the two countries should avoid going in a confrontational direction. “If so, it would be advisable to seek another way of contact on the basis of such new thinking,” she said in the latest statement.

Kim Yo Jong has served as the public face of the North’s diplomatic messaging, especially when signaling shifts or hard-line positions. She is often described as Kim Jong Un’s de facto second-in-command on inter-Korean affairs.

Last year, North Korea released its first photos of a facility to enrich uranium for atomic bombs, indicating it no longer sees a need to hide a program it once furiously denied when then-President George W. Bush first made the accusation in 2002. Kim Jong Un toured a laboratory making weapons-grade nuclear materials in January again and said the country should strengthen its nuclear shield.

“If the U.S. fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK-U.S. meeting will remain a hope of the U.S. side,” Kim Yo Jong said.