North Korea”s Kim vows nuclear programme to continue
Kim recently visited a nuclear-material production facility, Pyongyang”s official Korean Central News Agency said, where Kim warned of an “inevitable” confrontation with hostile nations and said 2025 would be a “crucial year” for bolstering North Korea”s nuclear forces, AFP reported.
“It is our firm political and military stand and invariable noble task and duty to develop the state”s nuclear counteraction posture indefinitely,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
The report, and Kim”s nuclear factory visit, follow Pyongyang”s test-firing on Saturday of sea-to-surface strategic guided cruise missiles, its first weapons test since Trump returned to the White House on January 20.
In response, an official with the US National Security Council said Trump would pursue “the complete denuclearisation of North Korea, just as he did in his first term”, according to a report from the South Korean Yonhap news agency.
Trump, who had a rare series of meetings with Kim during his first term, said in an interview last week that he would reach out to the North Korean leader again, calling Kim a “smart guy”.
Despite enduring crippling economic sanctions, North Korea declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear state in 2022.
Pyongyang says the weapons are necessary for its self-defense and to counter hostilities from Washington.
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Zelensky lacks legitimacy to sign any deal: Putin
Negotiating with the de-facto Ukrainian leadership will not have any legal meaning, given that Kiev explicitly banned itself from engaging in talks with Moscow, according to Putin.
In 2022, Zelensky, whose presidential term officially ended in May 2024, issued a decree prohibiting negotiations with Russia, and President Vladimir Putin specifically, a measure that remains in effect. Last week, Zelensky claimed the ban applies to all Ukrainian officials except himself, although the original decree did not specify a list of entities barred from talking to Russia, stating only that such negotiations were “impossible.”
“If we start negotiations now, they will be illegitimate… Because when the current head of the regime, that’s the only way to call [Zelensky] today, signed this decree, he was a somewhat legitimate president. But now he can’t cancel it, because he is illegitimate. That’s the trick, the catch, the trap,” Putin explained, RT reported.
However, the Ukrainian leadership could find a way out of this situation and circumvent the ban, Putin said, suggesting that the country’s parliament could do that. “According to Ukraine’s constitution, the president of Ukraine, even under martial law, cannot extend his term. Only the representative branch can have its term extended, that’s the Ukrainian parliament, while the president only has a five-year term, that’s it,” he said.
Asked whether Moscow would actually talk to Zelensky if he expresses the desire to do so, Putin said the Ukrainian leader lacks any authority to actually strike any sort of deal with Russia.
“It’s possible to negotiate with anyone. However, due to his illegitimacy, [Zelensky] has no right to sign anything. If he wishes to participate in talks, I will deploy people who will conduct such negotiations,” Putin said. He stressed that signing any deal would be a “very serious question” and the agreement must “guarantee the security of both Ukraine and Russia” for a “serious” period of time.
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