In his first term as President of the United States, Donald Trump strengthened economic sanctions against North Korea in an effort to force it to give up its nuclear weapons program. VOA correspondent Young Gyo Kimi takes a look at what Mr. Trump should expect from Pyongyang in his second term.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used a military exhibition to make his first comments about the United States since Donald Trump was elected president, saying past negotiations confirmed what he called "unchangeable" hostility. of Washington to Pyongyang. Leader Kim vowed to expand North Korea's nuclear capabilities "without limit" as the only way to counter external threats. Former State Department official for Asian affairs Evans Revere thinks Kim Jong Un is a completely different adversary to Mr Trump today than when they last met in 2019.
"Kim Jong Un believes he has more power. And I believe that part of this stronger hand is his new relationship with the Russians."
US military officials say there are currently more than 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia helping it fight Ukraine.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov was in Pyongyang last month to strengthen the strategic partnership treaty that the minister says reduces the risk of war on the Korean peninsula.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says the Moscow-Pyongyang alliance is a challenge for the incoming Trump administration.
"Nuclear and missile technology is developing rapidly in North Korea, and now there is a danger that they will use it, being a threat to us here, but also to the territory of the United States," he said.
Taken together, Russia and North Korea pose the risk of greater instability, says former US national intelligence officer for North Korea, Sydney Seiler.
"This is becoming a military alliance that poses a short-term and long-term risk, a risk of prolonging the war in Ukraine, destabilizing the Korean Peninsula, therefore, destabilizing the international community," he emphasizes.
Now that North Korea is providing Moscow with Russian air defense systems, modernization of munitions production, money, food aid and fuel, leader Kim needs Washington less than during Mr. Trump's first term, says former officer Seiler .
"With all the things Kim Jong Un is able to get from his new best friend Vladimir Putin, why would he turn to Donald Trump?," says Sydney Seiler, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
In his first term, Mr. Trump worked with South Korean leaders to try to curb North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
In his second term, he will face a North Korea that has ruled out reducing or giving up its nuclear weapons, Mr. Revere says.
"What the North Koreans want is for it to be accepted, or at least for the United States to accept, that North Korea is a legitimate, nuclear power and that the two countries need to sit down together and talk about how they can co-exist. - the other", he emphasizes.
Just a few days before the US presidential election, North Korea tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach most of the territory of the United States. / Voice of America (A2 Televizion)
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