North Korean leader says past diplomacy only confirmed US hostility

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, centre right, attends an opening ceremony of a defense exhibition in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

Seoul, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his past negotiations with the United States only confirmed Washington’s “unchangeable” hostility toward Pyongyang and described his nuclear buildup as the only way to counter external threats, state media said Friday.

Kim spoke Thursday at a defense exhibition where North Korea displayed some of its most powerful weapons systems, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the U.S. mainland, the North’s Korean Central News Agency said. While meeting with army officers last week, he had pledged a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program.

Kim has yet to comment directly on Donald Trump's reelection as U.S. president. During his first term, Trump held three highly orchestrated summits with the North Korean leader in 2018 and 2019, before the diplomacy collapsed over disagreements in exchanging the release of U.S.-led economic sanctions and the North’s steps to wind down its nuclear program.

During the speech at the exhibition, Kim touched on the failed summits without naming Trump.

“We have already gone as far as possible with the United States with negotiations, and what we ended up confirming was not a superpower’s will for coexistence, but a thorough position based on force and an unchangeable invasive and hostile policy,” toward North Korea, Kim said.

Kim accused the United States of raising military pressure on North Korea by strengthening its military cooperation with regional allies and increasing the deployment of “strategic strike means,” apparently a reference to major U.S. assets like long-range bombers, submarines and aircraft carriers. He called for accelerated efforts to advance the capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, saying the country’s only guarantee of security to build up the “strongest defense power that can overwhelm the enemy.”

Kim's expanding nuclear weapons and missile program includes various weapons targeting South Korea and Japan and longer range missiles that have demonstrated the range to reach the U.S. mainland. Analysts say Kim’s nuclear push is aimed at eventually pressuring Washington into accepting the North as a nuclear power and to negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength.

In recent months, the priority of Kim’s foreign policy has been Russia, as he tries to strengthen his international footing, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and aligning with President Vladimir Putin’s broader conflicts with the West.

Washington and its allies have accused North Korea of providing Russia with thousands of troops and huge amounts of military equipment, including artillery systems and missiles, to help sustain its fighting in Ukraine. Kim in return could possibly receive badly needed economic aid and possible Russian technology transfers that would possibly enhance the threat posed by his nuclear-armed military, according to outside officials and experts.

Even with Trump returning to the White House, a quicky resumption of diplomacy with Pyongyang could be unlikely, according to some experts. North Korea's deepening alliance with Russia and the weakening sanctions enforcement against Pyongyang are presenting further challenges in the diplomatic push to resolve the nuclear standoff with Kim, who also would have a greater perception of his bargaining powers following a rapid expansion of his arsenal in recent years.