The highly effective sister of North Korean chief Kim Jong Un dismissed the U.S.’s intent to resume diplomacy on North Korea’s denuclearization, saying on Tuesday (July 29, 2025) the North flatly opposes any try to deny its place as a nuclear weapons state.
In his second time period, U.S. President Donald Trump has bragged of his private ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed hopes of restarting nuclear diplomacy between them. Their high-stakes diplomacy in 2018-19 unraveled due to disputes over U.S.-led sanctions towards North Korea. Kim has since executed weapons exams to modernize and develop his nuclear arsenal.
In a press release carried by state media, Kim Yo Jong stated she doesn’t deny the private relationship between her brother and Trump “is not bad.” But she stated if their private relations are to serve the aim of North Korea’s denuclearization, North Korea would view it as “nothing but a mockery.”
She stated it was value contemplating that the yr is 2025, not 2018 or 2019 — which was throughout Trump’s first time period — and any try to deny North Korea as a nuclear weapons state could be rejected.
“If the U.S. fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK- U.S. meeting will remain as a ‘hope’ of the U.S. side,” Kim Yo Jong stated, referring to her nation by its official identify, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
She stated she was responding to reported feedback by a U.S. official that Trump is open to talks on denuclearization. She seemingly was referring to a Saturday article by Yonhap information company that cited an unidentified White House official as saying Trump “remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearized North Korea.”
Ms. Kim Yo Jong is a key official on the Central Committee of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party. She handles the nation’s relations with South Korea and the United States, and South Korean officers and consultants imagine she is the North’s second-most highly effective individual after her brother.
Experts have stated beforehand that North Korea would solely be fascinated with talks on a partial give up of its nuclear functionality in return for sanctions reduction and different advantages, whereas retaining a few of its nuclear weapons.
The earlier Trump-Kim diplomacy collapsed after Trump rejected Kim’s requires in depth sanctions reduction in return for dismantling his major nuclear complicated, a restricted denuclearization step.
On Monday (July 28, 2025), Ms. Kim Yo Jong rebuffed overtures by South Korea’s new liberal authorities, saying its “blind trust” within the nation’s alliance with the U.S. and hostility towards North Korea make it no completely different from its conservative predecessor.
Her feedback suggest that North Korea — now preoccupied with its increasing cooperation with Russia — sees no want to resume diplomacy with South Korea anytime quickly.
