N. Korea’s art performance celebrating new year North Korean leader Kim Jong-un waves as he attends an art performance ushering in the new year at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang on Dec. 31, 2024, in this photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency the next day. (Yonhap)
Newborns on New Year’s Day Fathers hold their newborn babies with their baby bump nicknames — (from L to R) Nikke, Kkomuri and Dingguri — at a hospital in Goyang, near Seoul, on Jan. 1, 2025. (Yonhap)
Annual bell-ringing ceremony to usher in new year Actress Ko Doo-sim (L, rear) and other civil representatives toll the bell at Bosingak Pavilion in Seoul on Jan. 1, 2025, in a ceremony to usher in the new year. The popular midnight bell-ringing celebration has been held every year since 1953 to ring out the old year and ring in the new year, though public attendance was prohibited during the 2019-2021 COVID-19 pandemic period. (Yonhap)
Year of the Tiger The National Museum of Korea on Jan. 2, 2022, unveils paintings featuring tigers to mark 2022 as the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese zodiac, in this photo provided by the museum. (Yonhap)
New Year celebration in North Korea North Koreans greet the new year at Kim Il-sung Square in central Pyongyang on Jan. 1, 2021, in the photo released by the North’s Korean Central News Agency. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
Last sunset of 2019 from Hwaseong Fortress The bright orange orb of the setting sun silhouettes Seojangdae tower at Hwaseong Fortress for the last time of the year on Dec. 31, 2019. The fortress, located in Suwon, 46 kilometers south of Seoul, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. (Yonhap)
This photo, captured from North Korean state TV, shows leader Kim Jong-un delivering a New Year’s address on Jan. 1, 2019.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said Tuesday he is firmly committed to denuclearization and ready to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at any time, but warned he could seek an alternative course if the U.S. misjudges his patience and sticks to sanctions. Kim made the remarks during his New Year’s speech broadcast by the country’s state television, also urging the U.S. to take corresponding measures in exchange for denuclearization steps the communist nation has taken so far. Kim also said he is willing to reopen the now shuttered inter-Korean industrial park in the North’s border city of Kaesong and resume a suspended tour program to Mount Kumgang on the North’s east coast “without any preconditions.” That could suggest Kim wants the resumption of the two projects as sanctions relief from the U.S. “I am always ready to sit down again with the U.S. president at any time and will make efforts to produce an outcome that the international community would welcome,” Kim said. “(But) we could be left with no choice but to seek a new way if the U.S. does not make good on its promises, misjudges our patience, while seeking to force things unilaterally and clinging to sanctions and pressure,” he said.
You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime is hoping they can get the second meeting with President Trump where Kim Jong-un can convince him to drop the sanctions on the Kaesong Industrial Park and the Mt. Kumgang Resort for superficial and easily reversible concessions that we have seen before.
Dropping of sanctions would allow a surge of investment in North Korea that will line the pockets of the Kim regime that they can then use to further develop their nuclear and other weapons programs. The only real concessions from North Korea that I believe would warrant dropping of any sanctions is when they release a complete list of their nuclear sites, allow inspections, and begin shipping nuclear material out of the country. I have seen no indications the Kim regime is even considering this.
