North Korea’s Kim Jong Un says he could “get along well” with the US if it respects Pyongyang’s nuclear status, but permanently excludes South Korea

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said his country could “get along well” with the United States if Washington acknowledges its nuclear status.

However, he dashed hopes for diplomacy with Seoul, stating North Korea will “permanently exclude South Korea from the category of compatriots”.

Kim made the direct appeal to the US as a landmark congress of the ruling Workers’ Party concluded.

“If Washington ‘respects our country’s current (nuclear) 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 state media.

He struck a far more combative tone when addressing South Korea.

North Korea has “absolutely no business dealing with South Korea, its most hostile entity,” Kim declared.

“As long as South Korea cannot escape the geopolitical conditions of having a border with us, the only way to live safely is to give up everything related to us and leave us alone.”

Analysts say the remarks signal Pyongyang’s intent to pursue relations with Washington independently, bypassing Seoul.

Kim is also making clear he will “reject any negotiations premised on denuclearisation,” said Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies.

Speculation is mounting that US President Donald Trump may seek a meeting with Kim when he travels to China later this year.

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

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

A Trump-Kim meeting would be a major breakthrough after years of deadlocked diplomacy.

Their Hanoi summit in 2019 collapsed as the pair failed to agree on sanctions relief and nuclear concessions.

A “grand” military parade marked the end of the Workers’ Party congress, a landmark event held just once every five years.

“Our military will immediately launch a fierce retaliatory attack against any military hostile act committed by any force that infringes upon the sovereignty… of our country,” Kim said at the parade.

Pyongyang said a range of military units took part, including troops who fought in Ukraine.

Kim appeared alongside China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a grand military parade in Beijing last year.

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

 The Sun Malaysia