'We do not care': North Korea rebuffs Trump's 'Kim Jong Un misses me' remark

North Korea has rebuffed former President Donald Trump remarks that the nation’s leader Kim Jong Un misses him, saying “we do not care” about his re-election and warned its nuclear arsenal stands ready for any US leader.

During the final day of the Republican National Convention last week, Trump, in a 90-minute speech, said, “When we get back, I get along with him [Kim Jong Un]. He’d like to see me back too. I think he misses me, if you want to know the truth.”

Even though a delayed response, Pyongyang, via state-run media outlet Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), on Tuesday shot back saying that the US is perceived as “a perfidious country which does not fulfill its promises, saying this or that.”

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“Even if any administration takes office in the US, the political climate, which is confused by the infighting of the two parties, does not change and, accordingly, we do not care about this,” Newsweek quoted Pyongyang as saying in a statement.

The statement acknowledged that Trump “tried to reflect the special personal relations between the heads of states” but added that he didn’t bring “any substantial positive change.”

The statement further goes on to say that personal feelings must be distinguished from a state’s foreign policy.

In 2019, Trump became the first US president to visit North Korea.

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Over the course of his presidency, he met with the North Korean leader a total of three times, and has claimed the tension between the countries was “solved” by him, although experts dispute this.

Meanwhile, some experts felt that by publishing this statement, North Korea has suggested they are watching the November elections very closely.

“This commentary is evidence that North Korea is likely paying close attention to discourses in Washington right now, and opens up possibilities that the relations may change drastically if Trump becomes president again,” Newsweek quoted Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute of National Unification, as saying to North Korea News.

Ralph G. Carter, a professor of political science at Texas Christian University, told Newsweek that the outcome of the election could be felt by North Korea.

“The Biden-Harris administration pursued closer military ties with South Korea and Japan — two of North Korea’s greatest rivals and threats. A Harris presidency would almost certainly maintain those close ties,” he was quoted as saying.

However, on the other side, Carter said Trump sought to reduce the size of the US military presence in South Korea, canceled biannual joint US-South Korean military exercises, and generally signaled that South Korea was not a significant US national interest to defend.

Trump-Kim ties

Trump initially threatened to unleash “fire and fury” against Kim Jong-un in 2017 over North Korea’s nuclear tests and missile developments aimed at reaching the US. In response, North Korea’s KCNA labeled Trump a “dotard” and his envoys as “gangsters.”

However, following their historic summit in Singapore in 2018, the tone shifted dramatically, with North Korean officials calling it “mysteriously wonderful” chemistry between the two leaders.

At the Singapore summit, they agreed to a basic declaration on denuclearisation.

Subsequently, Kim briefly halted missile testing, and the US scaled back joint military exercises with South Korea, which had been a sore point for Pyongyang.

Despite these gestures, Kim took no concrete steps to dismantle his nuclear arsenal. Instead, he continued to increase his stockpile of fissile material and began testing a new generation of modernised, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles shortly after Trump abruptly ended a second round of talks in Vietnam in 2019.

North awaiting Trump’s reelection

“North Korea is eagerly awaiting Trump’s reelection," Bloomberg quoted Ri Il Gyu, a former North Korean diplomat who defected to South Korea in November, as saying in an interview to Yonhap News.

Its Foreign Ministry is likely preparing for negotiations if Trump returned to the White House, Ri said, adding he expects his former colleagues would face “an uphill battle” in trying to improve relations.

Since taking office, the Biden administration has worked to improve security ties between its two main allies in the region, Japan and South Korea, while making shows of American military might and warning Kim the use of nuclear weapons would mean the end of his rule in North Korea.

Kim has ignored calls from Biden’s White House to return to the bargaining table as he advanced his arsenal of nuclear weapons.

With inputs from agencies