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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said there was no reason to avoid talks with the U.S. if Washington stopped insisting his country give up nuclear weapons, but he would never abandon the nuclear arsenal to end sanctions, Reuters reported citing North Korean state media.
"Personally, I still have fond memories of U.S. President (Donald) Trump," KCNA reported the North Korean leader saying in a speech at the Supreme People's Assembly on Sunday, according to Reuters.
The two leaders met three times during Trump's first presidency.
Kim's comments come as the new liberal government in Seoul urges Trump to take the lead in reopening dialogue with Kim, six years after all peace talks with Pyongyang collapsed over sanctions and nuclear dismantlement, according to Reuters.
"If the United States drops the absurd obsession with denuclearising us and accepts reality, and wants genuine peaceful coexistence, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the United States," Kim was quoted as saying.
It is the first time Kim has mentioned Trump by name since the U.S. president's inauguration in January, Reuters quoted Rachel Minyoung Lee, a North Korea expert with the U.S.-based Stimson Center, as saying.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said in an interview with Reuters that North Korea was building 15 to 20 nuclear bombs a year and any deal that froze that manufacturing would be a useful step towards eventually dismantling the programme altogether.
"Based on that, we can proceed to medium-term negotiations for nuclear weapons reductions, and in the long run, once mutual trust is restored and North Korea’s regime-security concerns are reduced, we can pursue denuclearisation," he said.
Kim bluntly rejected any phased plan, saying recent overtures from Washington and Seoul for dialogue were disingenuous because their fundamental intent to weaken the North and destroy his regime remained unchanged, and that Lee's phased plan was proof of that.
"The world already knows full well what the United States does after it makes a country give up its nuclear weapons and disarms," Kim said. "We will never give up our nuclear weapons."