Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump
Kim Jong Un and Donald TrumpReuters

North Korea sees no improvement in relations to be made by maintaining a relationship between leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump, state media reported on Friday (local time).

US policies prove Washington remains a long-term threat to the North Korean state and its people, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Son Gwon said in a statement carried by the state news agency KCNA.

The statement was published on the anniversary of the Singapore summit in June 2018 which represented the first time a sitting American president met with a North Korean leader.

Ri said in retrospect the Trump administration appears to have been focusing on only scoring political points while seeking to isolate and suffocate North Korea, and threatening it with preemptive nuclear strikes and regime change.

“Never again will we provide the US chief executive with another package to be used for achievements without receiving any returns,” he said. “Nothing is more hypocritical than an empty promise.”

The Singapore summit was the first of several meetings between Kim and Trump, the most recent one taking place in Hanoi last year.

Those meetings have resulted in little progress on the issue of North Korean denuclearization.

Since those talks broke down, North Korea has conducted several tests of ballistic missiles.

Pyongyang set a unilateral end-2019 deadline for Washington to offer fresh concessions. In his New Year’s message after his ultimatum to the US expired, the North Korean leader said his country would continue developing nuclear programs unless the US gave up its hostile approach.

Ri said North Korea’s desire to open a new cooperative era runs deep as ever, but that the situation on the Korean peninsula is daily taking a turn for the worse.

“The US professes to be an advocate for improved relations with the DPRK, but in fact, it is hell-bent on only exacerbating the situation,” Ri claimed.

North Korea will continue to build up its military forces to cope with the threats from the United States, he stressed.