The News
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un promised to employ the “toughest” anti-US policy, state media reported, less than a month before US President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Kim said the US was “the most reactionary state that regards anti-communism as its invariable state policy,” adding that Washington’s strengthened security partnership with South Korea and Japan was expanding into “a nuclear military bloc for aggression.”
Kim’s rhetoric may be strategic: A former North Korean official told Reuters earlier this year that Pyongyang hoped a second Trump presidency could lead to a breakthrough in nuclear diplomacy with Washington. However, many experts believe that Trump’s focus on ending the war in Ukraine and North Korea’s recent involvement in support of Russia erode the likelihood of such talks, The Associated Press reported.