North Korea Demands US Recognize It As ‘Irreversible’ Nuclear Power

North Korea is demanding that the United States recognize it as a permanent nuclear power, according to the latest words of Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a senior official in the country’s ruling Workers Party.

She was commenting Tuesday through the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on the possibility of renewing diplomatic talks with Washington, and laid out that any future negotiations must begin with a clear acknowledgment of North Korea’s “irreversible” status as a nuclear-armed state.

Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

In essence she vowed to never give up nukes, amid the long-running South Korean and US-backed push for nuclear disarmament on the peninsula. 

Kim warned further that attempts to deny this new reality “will be completely rejected” and stressed the country remains resolute and ready to defend itself in any situation.

Any future talks must be premised on the fact that Pyongyang’s capabilities and the geopolitical environment had “radically changed”. This new reality must be the basis for “everything in the future,” she said. 

“Any attempt to deny the position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state, which was established along with the existence of a powerful nuclear deterrent and fixed by the supreme law reflecting the unanimous will of all the DPRK people, will be thoroughly rejected,” Kim said.

“The DPRK is open to any option in defending its present national position,” she added. It is by “no means beneficial” for the US and North Korea to be in confrontation, so the Trump administration should “seek another way of contact on the basis of such new thinking.”

Much of this messaging appeared a response and reaction to recent regional reporting that President Trump aims to achieve a “fully denuclearized” North Korea. She also addressed the several warm, and unprecedented, visits between Kim Jong-Un and Trump during the US leader’s first term:

Kim also said that while the relationship between her brother and US President Donald Trump was “not bad”, any attempt to use their personal relations to advance denuclearization would be interpreted as a “mockery”.

“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.

Between 2018 and 2019, Trump met with Kim Jong-un no less than three times, but which resulted in no firm lasting agreement related to denuclearization and the economic incentives reportedly offered. Instead relations were arguably improved slightly, at least in terms of opening up the possibility of further dialogue.

via BBC

Pyongyang fears that the moment it gave up its nuclear arsenal, it could be subject to a regime change war – akin to what has happened with Iraq, Libya, Syria, or Iran. This fear is obviously not irrational, given recent history of countries which were persuaded to give up WMD programs.