hankyoreh

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who serves as head general secretary of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, speaks at a meeting of the party’s congress on Feb. 23, 2026. (KCNA/Yonhap)

After Kim Jong-un signaled an openness to improving relations with the US on the condition that Washington recognized North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, the White House said that US President Donald Trump remains open to dialogue “without any preconditions.” However, it also added that the US’ goal of denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula has not changed.
 
 “President Trump in his first term held three historic summits with North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un that stabilized the Korean Peninsula,” a White House official said Thursday in response to an inquiry from the Hankyoreh.

“President Trump remains open to talking with Kim Jong-un without any preconditions,” the official said. 
 
Noting that US policy toward North Korea “has not changed,” the official emphasized that the White House has not shifted from its stance of refusing to recognize North Korea as a nuclear state. 

One day earlier, during a speech at a key party congress, Kim had suggested that there was no reason that Pyongyang and Washington couldn’t “get on well,” if the latter were to withdraw its hostile policies toward North Korea and recognize it as a nuclear state. 

Trump met with Kim on three occasions during his first stint in office. During the first-ever US-North Korea summit, held in June 2018 in Singapore, the two sides adopted a joint statement that encompassed the efforts to turn a new leaf in the bilateral relationship and establish a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, as well as efforts toward the complete denuclearization of the peninsula.

In February of 2019, the two leaders met in Hanoi, Vietnam, for their second summit, but failed to narrow their differences on denuclearization measures and sanctions relief. Though they met again at Panmunjom in June of the same year, talks stalled indefinitely. 

Diplomatic circles are watching to see if Trump will use his visit to China, slated for late March and early April, to revive dialogue or backchannel talks with North Korea. The prevailing view is that it will be difficult for the US to go along with North Korea if Pyongyang names recognition as a nuclear state as its price for dialogue. 

By Kim Won-chul, Washington correspondent

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