After months of silence, North Korea finally opened up about talks with President Donald Trump, leaving open the door for positive dialogue but warning against any talks of denuclearization.
Among Trump’s most notable foreign policy moves of his first administration was warming relations with North Korea, opening up talks with the country, and famously meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the 38th Parallel and elsewhere. Upon Trump’s return to office, however, neither leader has spoken at length on restoring relations, distracted by events elsewhere. Pyongyang opened up for the first time on Tuesday, with the leader’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, signaling the possibility for talks outside of denuclearization.
“I do not want to deny the fact that the personal relationship between the head of our state and the present U.S. president is not bad,” she said in comments published by state media.
However, Kim Yo Jong noted that circumstances had changed, and efforts to pursue denuclearization talks would be viewed as a “mockery.”
“If the U.S. fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea]- U.S. meeting will remain as a ‘hope’ of the U.S. side,” she said, adding that it would be “advisable to seek another way of contact.”
“It is worth taking into account the fact that the year 2025 is neither 2018 nor 2019,” Kim Yo Jong continued, adding that North Korea’s “capabilities and geopolitical environment have radically changed.”
The leader’s sister is correct in this regard; Pyongyang has drastically expanded its nuclear arsenal and geopolitical standing in the six years since the last summit with the United States.
According to available information, Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal appears to have roughly doubled since 2019, with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimating that it has about 50 assembled nuclear warheads, with fissile material to assemble another 90. It has also been aggressively testing delivery methods since 2022, launching over 100 ballistic missiles, including 13 intercontinental ones.
On Sept. 9, 2022, Kim Jong Un announced in a speech to North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly that Pyongyang would never again entertain denuclearization talks, and “would never” give up its nuclear weapons. The day before, he signed into law an aggressive new nuclear doctrine, calling for the use of the country’s nuclear arsenal if its command and control system were ever threatened.
Aside from nuclear development, North Korea’s geopolitical environment has indeed “radically changed.” In 2019, North Korea remained without major allies besides lukewarm relations with China. In 2025, the war in Ukraine allowed North Korea to enact a close and fruitful alliance with Russia, which has opened the country up in exchange for extensive military support for the war. Thousands of North Korean soldiers fought successfully to expel Ukrainian forces from Kursk beginning in November 2024, something only openly acknowledged by the two earlier this year.
Pyongyang is now guaranteed substantial diplomatic and economic backing from Russia, giving it a stronger negotiating position vis-à-vis the U.S.
NORTH KOREA REJECTS SOUTH KOREAN EFFORTS TO EASE GEOPOLITICAL TENSIONS
Trump has only commented briefly on North Korea during his second term, commemorating the 72nd anniversary of the end of the Korean War on Monday by saying in a statement that he was “proud to become the first sitting President to cross this Demilitarized Zone into North Korea.”
North Korea has continued its denunciations of the U.S. but notably hasn’t attacked Trump personally.