North Korea says Trump must accept new nuclear reality
Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un who is believed to speak for his brother, said she conceded that the personal relationship between Kim and US President Donald Trump 'is not bad.'
But if Washington intended to use a personal relationship as a way to end the North's nuclear weapons program, the effort would only be the subject of 'mockery,' Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by KCNA.
'If the US fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK-US meeting will remain as a 'hope' of the US side,' she said. DPRK is short for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korea's capabilities as a nuclear weapons state and the geopolitical environment have radically changed since Kim and Trump held talks three times during the US president's first term, she said.
'Any attempt to deny the position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state ... will be thoroughly rejected,' she said.
Trump has said he has a 'great relationship' with Kim, and the White House has said the president is receptive to the idea of communicating with the reclusive North Korean leader.
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