“IN LOVE”
Hours after Trump’s August remarks – that it was important to get along with Kim – North Korea fired more than 10 short-range ballistic missiles from the Pyongyang area.
Then Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, said Trump’s decision to scale back the drills with South Korea was Seoul’s “comeuppance”.
Separate maritime exercises set to begin Sep 7 between the United States and allies South Korea and Japan have also drawn an angry response from Pyongyang.
Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies, noted Moscow-backed Pyongyang appears to have little motivation to seek US talks.
“From North Korea’s perspective, as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Russia-Ukraine war and the deepening confrontation with South Korea, the US and Japan on one side and North Korea, China and Russia on the other, there appears to be little incentive for dialogue,” he added.
Trump met Kim three times during his first term – once declaring they were “in love” – in high-profile summits aimed at securing a denuclearisation deal, but no tangible progress was made.
The US president even bucked decades of US policy by stating North Korea was “sort of a nuclear power” in October 2025.
But Trump’s comment at the time – that he was “100 per cent” open to meeting Kim again – have gone unanswered.
China, Washington’s chief geopolitical rival, has also been a major North Korean trading partner and a key source of diplomatic and economic support for the country – hit by multiple international sanctions.
South Korea’s dovish President Lee Jae Myung has pursued engagement with the North since taking office in June 2025, in contrast to his hardline predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol.
But Pyongyang has rejected his overtures, labelling Seoul its “most hostile” enemy and declaring itself an “irreversible” nuclear state.
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