North Korea’s Kim Jong Un has said the United States’ war with Iran proves his country made the right decision to keep its nuclear weapons.
In a speech to North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly published on Tuesday, Kim accused Washington of “acts of state sponsored terrorism and aggression,” but did not mention Iran by name.
“The present situation clearly proves” that North Korea was justified in rejecting what he described as US pressure and “sweet talk” to give up its nuclear arsenal, Kim said. He added that North Korea’s nuclear status is now “irreversible.”
US President Donald Trump has previously claimed Iran posed an “imminent” threat to the US, months after declaring the US had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Trump has cited preventing Iran from building a nuclear bomb as one of his reasons for launching strikes on the country.
For North Korea’s leadership, the Iran conflict reinforces a long-held belief that countries without nuclear weapons are exposed to US military power, while those with them can deter it.
The timing of Kim’s speech is significant. Trump has recently signaled he is open to restarting talks with Kim, reviving a diplomatic track that collapsed in 2019.
Kim’s latest remarks suggest any future meeting would look very different from past summits that focused on denuclearization. He has indicated he is willing to engage with Trump again, but only if the US accepts North Korea as a nuclear power and abandons what Pyongyang calls its “hostile policy.”
North Korea is widely believed to have assembled dozens of nuclear warheads, and, unlike Iran or Venezuela, it claims to possess operational nuclear weapons and delivery systems capable of reaching anywhere in the mainland US, although they have never been fully tested.
Recently, North Korea showcased a series of high-profile weapons tests, including cruise missile launches from a new warship and barrages of what state media described as nuclear-capable rockets. Speaking to the Workers’ Party Congress last month, Kim promised to expand his country’s nuclear arsenal, calling it the party’s “firm will” to increase both the number of weapons and the means to deploy them.
Kim has also put his teenage daughter, believed to be named Kim Ju Ae, at the center of these displays, signaling that North Korea’s nuclear program is not only permanent, but generational.
At the same time, Pyongyang is strengthening ties with Moscow. Russian state television has aired footage of North Korean troops training near the Ukrainian front, portraying the relationship as a strong anti-US partnership and emphasizing growing military cooperation.
The relationship has grown more consequential and North Korea’s role in Russia’s war in Ukraine has become central to Pyongyang’s propaganda. Kim agreed to supply artillery shells and rockets and deployed thousands of troops to support Russia’s war effort.
In return, analysts say Pyongyang has received food, fuel and potentially sensitive military technology, along with battlefield data that helps North Korea refine its weapons.
That alignment adds another layer of complexity for Washington. It suggests North Korea is not operating in isolation, but as part of a broader network of countries pushing back against US influence.
Despite the hardline tone, Kim has not completely shut the door on diplomacy — at the recent workers’ party congress, Kim left a narrow opening for talks with Washington.
But his conditions are clear: talks with the United States may be possible, but giving up nuclear weapons is not.
