Kim Jong Un’s Tough Love for Trump Comes Through in New Year Speech
LONDON — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chose a dark grey western-style suit, white shirt and soft grey tie for the occasion of a New Year’s address carefully tailored to show he’s open to another meeting with President Donald Trump but not about to yield on the critical question — the central question — of denuclearization.
As the clock on the desk behind him ticked a few minutes past midnight, Kim threatened to turn Trump’s fairy-tale peace into an explosive pumpkin, but after all the verbiage was done it appeared little had changed in a stalemate that has dragged on for months.
Yes, said the official report on Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency, Kim was “always ready to sit together with the U.S. president any time in the future.” But “if the U.S. fails to carry out its promise,” he warned, “we might be compelled to explore a new path for defending the sovereignty of our country and supreme interests of our state and achieving peace and stability of the Korean peninsula.”