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Pyongyang hopes for Trump presidency

Updated Aug 1, 2024, 6:46pm EDT
Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters
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The News

Pyongyang wants to restart nuclear arms talks with the US if Donald Trump is reelected as president, a former North Korean diplomat who defected to South Korea told Reuters. Trump engaged in unprecedented diplomacy with Kim Jong Un during his first term, but a second summit between the two ultimately collapsed in 2019, which the diplomat blamed on “inexperienced, clueless” military commanders charged with nuclear diplomacy.

Hoping for a Trump win this year, North Korea is exacerbating tensions with the South, with plans to back down and let Trump score a political win for bringing peace, the former German ambassador to North Korea argued in NPR. If Pyongyang succeeds, a future President Trump “may well give in this time” to Kim’s demands.

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