White House responds to ‘Rocket Man’ and North Korea’s threats over denuclearization

President Donald Trump remains open to meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in hopes of achieving denuclearization, the White House said, even as Pyongyang warned against any pressure to abandon its nuclear arsenal.

“President Trump in his first term held three historic summits with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un that stabilized the Korean Peninsula and achieved the first-ever leader-level agreement on denuclearization,” a White House official told Fox News Digital. 

“The President retains those objectives and remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully de-nuclearized North Korea.”

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of Kim Jong Un, said in remarks carried by state media that relations between Trump and her brother are “not bad.” However, she warned that any attempt to pressure North Korea to denuclearize would be viewed as “nothing but a mockery.”

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Trump and Kim pictured during their February 2019 meeting in Vietnam.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

She also claimed the country’s nuclear arsenal has significantly expanded since the two leaders last met — despite their pledge to pursue denuclearization — and stated that no future summit would be possible if it centered on nuclear disarmament.

“If the U.S. fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK–U.S. meeting will remain as a ‘hope’ of the U.S. side,” Kim Yo Jong said, referring to the country by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Trump held three unprecedented summits with the North Korean leader — whom he once nicknamed “Little Rocket Man” — during his first term: in Singapore in 2018, Hanoi in 2019, and at the Korean Demilitarized Zone later that year, where he became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot on North Korean soil.

At the 2018 summit, Trump and Kim signed a joint statement pledging to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” and committed to establishing new U.S.–North Korea relations.

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The pair initially signed a vague agreement for the Korean peninsula to denuclearize – but North Korea instead built up its arsenal. ((AP/KCNA))

However, talks broke down in subsequent meetings. North Korea did not give up its nuclear weapons, and the United States did not lift sanctions. Kim reportedly sought to dismantle only parts of the regime’s arsenal in exchange for full sanctions relief — a proposal Trump rejected.

By 2020, the talks had completely stalled, and North Korea resumed weapons testing.

This photo provided by the North Korean government, shows what it says rocket drills that simulate a nuclear counterattack against enemies, at an undisclosed place in North Korea Monday, April 22, 2024.  ( Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

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In a statement Monday commemorating the 72nd anniversary of the end of the Korean War, Trump reflected on his meetings with Kim, saying, “I was proud to become the first sitting President to cross this Demilitarized Zone into North Korea.”

He also reaffirmed the U.S. alliance with South Korea, adding: “Although the evils of communism still persist in Asia, American and South Korean forces remain united in an ironclad alliance to this day.”