SEOUL, South Korea — Denuclearization of North Korea is a prerequisite for global stability, South Korea said Tuesday after President Donald Trump described the reclusive regime as a “nuclear power,” raising concern that the U.S. could be moving toward recognizing the North as a nuclear-armed state.
Since Trump was last in office, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to “exponentially” boost his nuclear arsenal and ramped up weapons testing, including of missiles that could potentially strike the continental United States and overwhelm U.S. treaty ally South Korea.
The newly inaugurated Trump, who met with Kim three times during his first term to discuss North Korea’s U.N.-sanctioned weapons programs, spoke enthusiastically Monday about his past relationship with Kim, saying they liked each other.
“Now, he is a nuclear power,” Trump said while signing a series of executive orders in the Oval Office. “I think he’ll be happy to see I’m coming back.”
Trump’s defense secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth, also called North Korea a “nuclear power” during his Senate confirmation hearing last week.
While it is unclear what Trump and Hegseth meant by “nuclear power,” U.S. officials have long refrained from using the phrase as it could signal recognition of North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.
The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Though there is growing debate as to whether the international community should accept North Korea’s nuclear status, experts say doing so would significantly disrupt the geopolitical balance in the region and potentially set off an arms race, including the possible development of nuclear weapons by South Korea and Japan.
South Korea said Tuesday that North Korea “can never be recognized as a nuclear-armed state.”
“North Korea’s denuclearization remains a consistent principle upheld by the international community, including South Korea and the U.S.,” a spokesperson for the South Korean Foreign Ministry said.
A spokesperson for the South Korean defense ministry said the denuclearization of North Korea was “an essential condition for lasting peace and stability not only on the Korean Peninsula but also worldwide, and it must continue to be pursued.”
Though denuclearization has long been the goal, talks with North Korea have been stalled since Trump and Kim’s 2019 summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. There is speculation that Trump could seek another in-person meeting with the North Korean leader.
On Monday, Trump asked about Kim while speaking with U.S. service members stationed in South Korea, which hosts almost 30,000 U.S. troops.
“How’s Kim Jong Un?” he said during a video call from the stage at the Commander in Chief Ball.
Trump is “not a leader for legal nuances or diplomatic sensitivities,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
“For Trump, it is a simple fact that North Korea has nuclear weapons, and it is straightforward that states with nuclear weapons must get along to avoid war,” he said in an email.
The danger for Seoul, Easley said, is that U.S.-South Korea efforts to deter North Korea from advancing its weapons programs, which strengthened during the Biden administration, could take a back seat to Trump’s “personalistic diplomacy.”
“Any uncoordinated policy change regarding North Korean denuclearization could leave Seoul vulnerable to Pyongyang’s coercion,” he said.
Stella Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea, and Mithil Aggarwal from Hong Kong.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
