A MEETING between Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un appears increasingly unlikely when the US president travels to Asia, analysts say, after he suffered a crushing midterm election defeat.
Trump had said he “may” meet Kim this month and that it “would be exciting”, but appeared to backtrack in October, saying, “I don’t know... I’m not sure that anybody’s asking for a meeting,” while adding that his “relationship with Kim is very good”.
Trump’s focus on Kim and his scaling back of joint US-South Korean military drills have alarmed Asian allies, while sparking speculation that he is seeking a foreign policy win as his war with Iran stalls.
But Kim’s powerful sister Kim Yo-jong signalled on Wednesday that there was little appetite for renewed dialogue with Washington, saying that Pyongyang had “no need to sit face to face with such unreliable and hostile persons”.
“The choice for peace includes dialogue of course, but this is not surely equated with national interests for us,” she said.
Her comments came after the FBI accused North Korea of a US$6bil (RM24.7bil) heist from cryptocurrency exchange Binance – allegations she had previously slammed as “a grave political provocation”.
The statement marked “a shift from defence to offence”, said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in South Korea.
“The latest statement uses the (cyberattack) issue as an opportunity to condemn the entire US policy of pressure against North Korea,” he said.
In 2019, Kim made a 60-hour train journey home from Hanoi empty-handed after a summit with Trump collapsed.
Now, the dynamic has reversed. Trump is making repeated overtures, only to be met with reluctance from Pyongyang.
“For Kim Jong-un, maintaining the status quo is the best option right now,” Lim said.
Analysts say the North Korean leader has even less incentive to meet Trump after his Republican party suffered a thumping defeat in the US midterm elections.
Voters handed control of Congress to the Democrats in a stunning rebuke to Trump, leaving him as a lame-duck president for the remaining two years of his term.
“Trump is expected to continue pursuing top-down dialogue with North Korea,” said Yang Moo-jin, former president of the South’s University of North Korean Studies.
But Washington’s “divided government and Trump’s lame-duck status will be an important variable for North Korea”.
Pyongyang will be sceptical of Washington’s ability to deliver lasting concessions, said Michael Bosack, founding director of the Parley Policy Institute and a former UN Command official.
“The Kim regime is looking for substantial and durable changes in US policy towards North Korea.
“Right now, nothing Trump offers comes with a guarantee that it will last beyond January 2029,” Bosack said, referring to the date when the US president’s second term ends. — AFP
