Seoul: Incoming US President Donald Trump could seek fresh dialogue with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un after the former’s inauguration on Jan. 20, the South Korean spy agency said on Monday.
According to Anadolu Agency, Trump, who met with Kim three times during his first presidency, is expected to discuss a “small deal” on Pyongyang’s nuclear program. This could involve small-scale negotiations aimed at freezing North Korea’s nuclear programs or achieving nuclear disarmament, as the spy agency conveyed to lawmakers. The denuclearization talks had previously stalled after the 2019 Hanoi summit.
During Trump’s first term, he and Kim held two summits and met at locations including Singapore, Vietnam, and the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean Peninsula. Over the past four years since Trump was ousted in the 2020 presidential elections, North Korea has strengthened its ties with Russia, signing a military pact in June last year that mandates military aid between Moscow and Pyongyang in case of an at
tack by a third party.
Meanwhile, under the outgoing Biden administration, the US has reinforced its alliance with South Korea and Japan, forming a trilateral alliance against Pyongyang and initiating joint military drills on the Korean Peninsula. Kim Jong-un, more than two weeks after Trump won the November 5 presidential polls, reflected on past negotiations with the US, voicing his perception of the country’s “unchanging invasive and hostile policy toward North Korea.”
During a recent visit to Seoul, outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the Biden administration had made multiple attempts to engage North Korea without preconditions. However, he noted, these efforts were met with provocative actions, including missile launches by North Korea.