Kim Jong Un 'cannot denuclearise', says former North Korean diplomat defected to South

North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un will not give up the nuclear arsenal but he may be willing to negotiate an arms reduction to scrap some international sanctions impacting the economy, reportedly said nation’s former acting ambassador to Kuwait. In the first interview since defecting to the South over a year ago, Ryu Hyeon-woo told CNN that "North Korea's nuclear power is directly linked to the stability of the regime" and Kim likely believes that nuclear weapons are the ‘key’ to his survival as a supreme leader. Ryu reportedly also noted that the previous US administrations had isolated themselves in the corner by demanding denuclearisation directly in the negotiations with the secretive state. 

"The US can't back down from denuclearization and Kim Jong Un cannot denuclearize," Ryu told the media outlet. The former North Korean diplomat had adopted the name Ryo on defecting to South who is also one of the several high-profile officials of Pyongyang to be in Seoul. As per the report, North Korea’s top diplomat in Italy had fled to South Korea in 2019 and Thae Yong-ho, the former deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom, defected in 2016. Ryu and his family left North in September 2019 but it was made public last week. 

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North Korean parliament approves Kim’s nuclear boost

Ryu’s interview with CNN came after the Korean Central News Agency on January 18 reported that the parliament had passed a decision to back Kim’s push to boost nuclear deterrent and establish plans to savage the country’s dismal economy. Reportedly, the members of the Supreme People’s Assembly unanimously supported the development plans for the next five years. These plans were revealed during the Workers’ Party congress that ended earlier this month. 

Kim called for accelerated national efforts to build a military arsenal during the party congress, as per reports. He also announced a long wish-list of new sophisticated assets. This included longer-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-powered submarines, spy satellites and tactical nuclear weapons. Recently, describing it as the “world’s most powerful weapon”, North Korea’s huge military parade on January 14 included a developmental ballistic missile designed for launch from submarines, the state agency reported. 

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