North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to irreversibly cement his country’s status as a nuclear power while maintaining a hard-line stance toward South Korea, which he called “most hostile,” state media reported Tuesday.
In a speech Monday to Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament, Kim accused the United States of global “state terrorism and aggression,” an apparent reference to the war in the Middle East, and said the North would play a more forceful role in a united front against Washington amid rising anti-American sentiment.
He did not name U.S. President Donald Trump and said whether his adversaries “choose confrontation or peaceful coexistence is up to them, and we are prepared to respond to any choice.”
The remarks echoed positions Kim laid out at last month’s ruling Workers’ Party Congress, where he denounced Seoul but left open the possibility of dialogue with the Trump administration, urging Washington to drop demands for North Korean denuclearization as a precondition for talks.
State media said the Supreme People’s Assembly, which ended its two-day session Monday, passed a revised constitution but did not detail the changes. Observers had expected revisions to codify South Korea as a permanent enemy and remove references to shared nationhood, matching Kim’s 2024 declaration that the North would abandon its long-term goal of peaceful reunification.
Analysts say Kim’s vilification of South Korea reflects his view that Seoul, which helped arrange his 2018-2019 meetings with Trump, is no longer a useful intermediary with Washington but an obstacle to the North’s bid for a more assertive regional role. He has also moved to curb South Korean soft power, campaigning to block its cultural and linguistic influence as he tightens his family’s authoritarian control.
Kim expressed pride in the rapid expansion of the North’s nuclear weapons and missile programs, calling it the “right” choice to counter future threats and “hegemonic pursuits” by “gangsterlike” imperialists, a term the regime uses for the United States and its allies. “The dignity of the nation, its national interest and its ultimate victory can only be guaranteed by the strongest of power,” he said. “The government of our republic will continue to consolidate our absolutely irreversible status as a nuclear power and will aggressively wage a struggle against hostile forces to crush their (anti-North Korean) provocations and schemes.”
Kim has suspended meaningful dialogue with Washington and Seoul since his second summit with Trump collapsed in 2019 over U.S.-led sanctions. He has recently prioritized ties with Russia, reportedly sending thousands of troops and large amounts of military equipment to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for aid and military technology.
With the possibility of that war winding down, analysts say Kim may adopt a more measured approach toward Washington to preserve the option of future talks, aiming ultimately for U.S. sanctions relief and tacit recognition as a nuclear state. However, some experts argue that recent U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran and the killing of Tehran’s previous supreme leader may have raised Kim’s threshold for resuming dialogue with Washington.
