Kim Jong-un conditions U.S. talks on dropping denuclearization demands

Kim Jong-un has just extended an invitation to Donald Trump, but it comes with a price tag: the United States must abandon what he calls its "futile obsession" with denuclearization. The North Korean leader made this declaration on Sunday, September 21, before the Supreme People's Assembly, the same occasion he used to push for constitutional recognition of his nation's nuclear arsenal. It is the first real overture between Pyongyang and Washington since Trump took office for his second term, and it arrives two weeks after Kim met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin—a timing that speaks volumes about the shifting geometry of global power.

This is not the first dance between these two men. During Trump's first administration, they met three times between 2018 and 2019, most memorably at the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea. But six or seven years have passed, and the world has tilted. North Korea remains under severe international sanctions, yet those sanctions have become largely toothless. The country now draws steady income from military cooperation with Russia—soldiers deployed to fight in Ukraine, weapons sold, strategic partnership deepened. China continues to supply energy and essential goods. The economic noose that once strangled Pyongyang has loosened considerably, and that shift has given Kim Jong-un something he lacked before: leverage.

According to Jorge Chávez Mazuelos, a professor at Peru's Diplomatic Academy, the transformation is real and consequential. "The circumstances have changed," he explained. "North Korea faces less pressure thanks to cooperation with Russia—the money it receives for soldiers and weapons, the support from China for energy and other essentials. The current environment gives North Korea a position of greater strength than before." This is not mere posturing. North Korea has dozens of nuclear warheads and several missiles capable of carrying them hundreds of kilometers, far enough to reach Japan and South Korea. According to international analyst Roberto Heimovits, the arsenal now includes submarines equipped to launch missiles—the most dangerous component of any nuclear force. "No one could attack North Korea anymore without exposing themselves to a completely devastating reprisal," Heimovits said.

What, then, does Kim Jong-un actually want from these talks? He wants recognition. He wants the world—and especially the United States—to stop treating denuclearization as a precondition for dialogue and instead accept North Korea as a nuclear power. By writing nuclear weapons into his constitution and refusing to engage with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which he abandoned in 1994, Kim is attempting to make his arsenal a fait accompli, a permanent feature of his nation's identity rather than a negotiable problem. Any agreement with Washington that does not demand denuclearization would constitute a diplomatic victory for his regime, a tacit acknowledgment from the world's leading power that North Korea has earned its seat at the table as a nuclear state.

What might North Korea offer in return? Heimovits suggests Pyongyang could promise to halt further nuclear development, to stop building new warheads, to cease production of submarine-launched missiles. But here lies the credibility problem: North Korea has made similar promises before and broken them. The real question, one that haunts analysts and policymakers alike, is what the United States gains by accepting Kim's conditions. If Washington agrees to talks without demanding denuclearization, it essentially concedes the point that has defined American policy toward North Korea for decades.

Meanwhile, South Korea watches closely. President Lee Jae Myung, a liberal with a history of favoring engagement with the North, has been signaling openness to reconciliation. "Relations between North and South Korea are vital for protecting national interests and expanding diplomatic space," he told his cabinet. Yet Kim Jong-un has repeatedly stated there is no reason to meet with Seoul. The regional tension remains acute. Just a week before Kim's latest overture, the United States, Japan, and South Korea launched Operation Freedom Edge, joint air and naval exercises designed to strengthen their operational capacity across sea, air, and cyberspace—a clear message that the alliance remains intact even as diplomatic feelers wave in the wind.

Kim Jong-un is determined to position North Korea as an indispensable actor on the world stage, a power that major nations must reckon with. His recent appearance at Beijing's parade marking the end of World War II, standing alongside Putin, underscored those ties. Now, by conditioning talks with Trump on abandoning denuclearization, he is asserting that North Korea is not a problem to be solved but a player to be negotiated with. Whether Trump sees it that way remains the open question.