Kim Jong Un vowed to launch a tough anti-U.S. strategy in the coming few years, as President-elect Trump prepares to enter his second term in office.
During a five-day Workers’ Party meeting this past week, Kim said North Korea would launch “the toughest anti-U.S. counteraction” in the coming years “for its long-term national interests and security.”
Kim described the U.S. as “the most reactionary state that regards anti-communism as its invariable state policy” and warned that the alliance between the U.S., South Korea and Japan “has expanded into a nuclear military bloc for aggression.”
“This reality clearly shows to which direction we should advance and what we should do and how,” North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
The remarks come as Trump prepares to take office next month.
During his first term, Trump and Kim met three times to discuss North Korea’s nuclear program, and some have raised the prospects of renewed diplomacy between the two nations, as Trump returns.
They developed a personal relationship as well, with The Associated Press noting that Trump once said he and Kim “fell in love,” but their talks fell apart in 2019.
Kim has since sharpened his language around the threat he says the U.S. poses to North Korea, which has also increased its weapons testing in recent years. In response, the U.S. has sharpened its ties with South Korea.
