Kim Yo Jong Dismisses Trump's Drills Cut as Meaningless — SkimNews
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- Kim Yo Jong dismissed Trump's mid-August order to scale back joint US-South Korea military drills as a meaningless "goodwill gesture," warning Washington "will not get the answer they desire," even while calling the Trump-Kim relationship "excellent."
- Sydney Seiler, former national intelligence officer for North Korea, said Pyongyang's strategy set at the end of 2019 was to "walk away from diplomacy" and refuse talks with any country insisting on denuclearization, instead waiting for the world to accept North Korea as a nuclear power.
- Russia became the first country to formally accept North Korea's nuclear status in 2022, according to Seiler, with North Korea reportedly netting about $22 billion in benefits from the relationship while engaging in sanctions-proscribed military and economic cooperation without pushback from Moscow.
- Kim Jong Un's goal in both the 2018 Singapore and 2019 Hanoi summits was to get the US to accept North Korea as a nuclear power, not denuclearize, Seiler said — Kim walked away from Hanoi because Trump refused to lock in nuclear status or discuss arms control while leaving highly enriched uranium off the table.
- North Korea has reportedly shifted away from seeking sanctions relief entirely, with Seiler noting Kim has publicly stated he no longer wants sanctions relief and the country has netted billions from cybercrime alongside Russian economic and military ties.
- Trump's calculation in canceling drills was likely a "win-win" move to either draw Kim to the table or establish a public record of outreach while portraying Kim as the unresponsive party, Seiler argued, though North Korea's real target is ending all exercises and extended deterrence operations — not celebrating a single cancellation.
Why it matters: North Korea has decided it doesn't need the US anymore: with $22 billion in Russian partnership benefits, billions from cybercrime, and a formal nuclear acceptance from Moscow since 2022, Kim Jong Un has no incentive to negotiate with Trump. Trump appears to know a meeting won't happen soon and is using overtures partly to establish a public record that he tried — shifting diplomatic failure onto Pyongyang while Kim's actual endgame is pushing the US off the Korean Peninsula entirely.
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