In a speech at the general debate of the 80th United Nations General Assembly on Monday, South Korean President Li said that South Korea intends to break the "unnecessary cycle of military tensions and hostility" with North Korea, but just two days before Li's speech, North Korean Labour Party Secretary General and Chief of State Kim Jong-un made it clear that he will not give up nuclear weapons, nor intends to "sit face to face" with South Korea.

South Korea: Cut off the ¡°evil cycle¡±

Li said in his speech that it is urgent to promote the restoration of mutual trust and mutual respect between the DPRK and reiterated that South Korea respects the DPRK regime and does not seek any form of "absorption of unity" and does not intend to engage in any hostile activities.

Li said he will end the era of hostility and confrontation on the Korean Peninsula through a comprehensive dialogue at the core of "exchanges, normalization of relations, denuclearization" and open up a new era of "peaceful coexistence and common growth".

In addition, Lee Jae-myung also stated his vision of a "phased solution" to the DPRK nuclear issue in his speech, saying that this vision is "based on a calm cognition that denuclearization cannot be realized in a short time".

Li¡¯s attitude toward the DPRK was clearly different from that of his predecessor Yong Zhi. The DPRK government passed a bill in June 2024 to suspend the full effect of the DPRK¡¯s 9-19 military agreement. The agreement was signed by the DPRK military in September 2018, aimed at eliminating the threat of war on the Korean Peninsula, ending military hostility in all regions including the non-military zone, and building the Korean Peninsula into a ¡°permanent peace zone¡±.

After Lee Jae-myung opened his presidency in June this year, South Korea's attitude towards the DPRK changed. On August 4th, the South Korean military began to dismantle the loudspeaker broadcast to North Korea. On August 15th, Lee Jae-myung said at the celebration ceremony of the 80th anniversary of the Guangfu Day that he respected the current system of North Korea, did not pursue its unification in any form, and made it clear that he had no intention of engaging in any hostile acts, and would take the lead in restoring the September 19th Military Agreement in stages.

But in the meantime, the South American military held a large-scale joint military exercise called the ¡°Shield of Liberty¡± in August.A spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People¡¯s Army condemned the US-Korean military exercise, calling it extremely provocative and aggressive, and the US-Korean is ¡°the mastermind of undermining peace on the Korean Peninsula.¡±

North Korea: South Korea is free of talks, the United States depends on the situation

The 13th meeting of the 14th Supreme People's Conference of the DPRK was held in Pyongyang on 20 and 21 and Kim Jong-un delivered a speech at the meeting on 21 and made it clear that he will not give up nuclear weapons, nor will he "sit face to face" with the South Korean side.

In his speech, Kim said that although the new US and South Korean governments are open to dialogue with North Korea and seek to improve their relations, they will never change the nature of weakening North Korean forces and overthrowing the North Korean system.

Kim Jong-un said North Korea "will not sit face to face with South Korea or do anything together."

On whether to communicate with the US side, Kim said that if the United States abandoned its attachment to North Korea's denuclearization and recognized the reality and hoped to truly coexist in peace with North Korea, there would be no reason for North Korea not to communicate with the US side.

Trump's speech did not mention North Korea

According to Reuters, during the general debate of the UN General Assembly on 23rd, Trump did not mention North Korea in his more than fifty-minute speech.

When Trump visited Lee in the White House last month, the two discussed issues such as the situation on the Korean Peninsula. When asked by reporters about the intention to meet Kim Jong-un this year or next year, Trump replied, ¡°I want to see him this year.¡± Trump also said, ¡°I have a good relationship with him (Kim Jong-un). I think the country he leads has huge potential and the prospects are bright.¡±

During Trump's first presidential term, he met with Kim Jong-un in Singapore in June 2018 for the first time in the history of the US leadership, held a second meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam in February 2019, and met again in Panmunjom, the non-military district of the Korean Peninsula in June of the same year.