Kim signals openness to US ties while calling South Korea ‘most hostile’

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has suggested his country could “get along” with the United States but declared that South Korea – Washington’s security ally – remained its “most hostile” enemy, state media reported Thursday.

Kim made the remarks at the end of a landmark party congress, urging Washington to respect Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear power.

His words came as speculation grows that US President Donald Trump may seek some kind of meeting with Kim on the sidelines of a visit to China in April.

If Washington “respects our country’s current status as stipulated in the Constitution … and withdraws its hostile policy … there is no reason why we cannot get along well with the United States”, Kim said, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

But he appeared to close the door on any notion of building closer ties with South Korea, saying he would “permanently exclude” Seoul as one of his nation’s “compatriots”.

North Korea has “absolutely no business dealing with South Korea, its most hostile entity”, Kim said, calling Seoul’s recent dovish efforts “deceptive”.

Pyongyang amended its constitution in 2024 to define South Korea as a “hostile state” for the first time.

A “grand” military parade marked the end of the Workers’ Party congress, a once-in-five-years event that directs state efforts on everything from foreign policy to war planning.

North Korea has used such parades in the past to show off its newest weapons, offering a rare source of insight into the strength of its armed forces.

Trump overtures

US President Donald Trump stepped up his courtship of Kim during a tour of Asia last year, saying he was “100 percent” open to a meeting.

Trump even bucked decades of US policy by conceding that North Korea was “sort of a nuclear power”.

A Trump–Kim meeting in April would mark a major breakthrough after years of deadlocked diplomacy following the collapse of their 2019 summit in Hanoi over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up from its nuclear arsenal in return.

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Kim appeared alongside China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a grand military parade in Beijing last year – a striking display of his powerful friends and elevated status in global politics.

Pyongyang has particularly drawn much closer to Moscow, sending thousands of troops to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Analysts say Russia is giving North Korea military technology, food and energy supplies in return, allowing it to sidestep tough international sanctions.

“With Moscow now providing a substantial economic lifeline – effectively neutralising the bite of UN sanctions – Kim Jong Un no longer feels the same urgency to respond” to Washington’s dialogue gestures, Seong-Hyon Lee, a visiting scholar at the Harvard University Asia Centre, told AFP.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)