White House Says Trump Still Open to Talks with Kim Jong-un Without Preconditions

The White House said on the 26th (local time) that President Donald Trump remains "open to talks with no preconditions" with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, whom he met three times during his first term in office.

Yonhap News Agency

In response to a question from Yonhap News Agency regarding Kim's remarks expressing a "conditional willingness to improve North Korea-U.S. relations," which were made public the previous day, a White House official said, "During his first term, President Trump held three historic summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that stabilized the Korean Peninsula."

The official added, "The United States' policy toward North Korea has not changed," and said, "President Trump is still open to talking with Kim Jong-un without any preconditions."

The White House’s reference to its "unchanged North Korea policy" is being interpreted as both a reaffirmation of the president’s willingness to engage in unconditional leader-level talks and a confirmation that the administration continues to adhere to its basic principle of pursuing the complete denuclearization of North Korea.

In the report summing up the 9th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea, which was released earlier by North Korea, Kim indicated that it would be possible to improve relations with the United States if Washington recognizes North Korea’s status as a nuclear-armed state and withdraws its hostile policy toward the country.

In the "report on the overall work of the Party" delivered at the Party Congress held on the 20th and 21st, Kim announced that he would maintain a "maximum hard-line stance" as the basic direction of policy toward the United States, but also said, "If (the United States) respects the current status of our state (as a nuclear-armed country) and withdraws its hostile policy toward our Republic, then we have no reason not to get along well with the United States."

Within diplomatic circles, there is speculation that, as President Trump is expected to visit China between late next month and early April, this trip could serve as an opportunity to explore the possibility of contact between the U.S. and North Korean leaders.

During his first term, President Trump held the first North Korea-U.S. summit in Singapore in June 2018. He held a second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019. In June of the same year, he met with Kim at Panmunjom.

At the Singapore summit, the two sides adopted a joint statement that included commitments to "establish new North Korea-U.S. relations," "build a lasting and stable peace regime on the Korean Peninsula," and "work toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." However, at the Hanoi summit, they failed to reach a concrete implementation agreement due to differences over denuclearization measures and sanctions relief. Since then, substantive denuclearization talks between North Korea and the United States have been virtually suspended.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.