“IN LOVE”
Kim has recently sought to enhance his standing with his allies, sending troops and munitions to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine.
He also recently hosted China’s President Xi Jinping in Pyongyang, soon after Xi had held back-to-back summits in Beijing with Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Neither Pyongyang’s nor Beijing’s official statements mentioned the issue of North Korean denuclearisation – an outcome experts interpreted as tacit acceptance from China.
Pyongyang has repeatedly declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state since a 2019 summit between Kim and Trump in Hanoi collapsed over the scope of denuclearisation and sanctions relief.
Trump met Kim three times during his first term – once declaring they were “in love” – as he pushed to hammer out a long-coveted deal on denuclearisation.
But no tangible progress has been made.
Trump stepped up his courtship of Kim during a tour of Asia last year, saying he was “100 per cent” open to a meeting. The offer has gone unanswered.
The US president even bucked decades of US policy by stating North Korea was “sort of a nuclear power”.