North Korea wants to reopen nuclear talks with the United States if Donald Trump is re-elected as president and is working to devise a new negotiating strategy, a senior North Korean diplomat who recently defected to South Korea told Reuters.
The escape of Ri Il Gyu from Cuba made headlines globally last month. He was the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat to defect to the South since 2016.
In his first interview with international media, Ri said North Korea has set Russia, the US and Japan as its top foreign policy priorities for this year and beyond.
While bolstering relations with Russia, Pyongyang was keen to reopen nuclear negotiations if Mr Trump - who engaged in both fiery brinkmanship and unprecedented diplomacy with North Korea during his previous term - won re-election in November, Ri said.
Pyongyang's diplomats were mapping out a strategy for that scenario, with the goal of lifting of sanctions on its weapons programmes, removing its designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and eliciting economic aid, said Ri.
His comments signal a potential about-face from the North's current stance after recent statements ditching the possibility of dialogue with the US and warning of armed confrontation.
A summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Mr Trump in Vietnam in 2019 collapsed over sanctions, for which Ri partly blamed Kim's decision to entrust "inexperienced, clueless" military commanders with nuclear diplomacy.
"Kim Jong Un doesn't know much about international relations and diplomacy, or how to make strategic judgment," he said.
"This time, the foreign ministry would definitely gain power and take charge, and it won't be so easy for Trump to tie North Korea's hands and feet again for four years without giving anything."
Russian ties, Japan aid
By forging closer ties with Russia, North Korea received help with its missile technology and economy. But a bigger benefit could be to block additional sanctions and undercut existing ones, Ri said, adding it would raise Pyongyang's bargaining power against Washington.
"The Russians got their own hands dirty by engaging in illicit transactions and, thanks to that, North Korea no longer needs to rely on the US to lift sanctions, which essentially means they stripped the US of one key bargaining chip," he said.
In Tokyo, Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida has said he wants to meet Kim, but the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 80s has long been a stumbling block.
According to Ri, Kim would seek to hold a summit with Japan, aiming to get economic assistance in return for concessions on the abductee issue.
Tokyo believes 17 of its citizens were abducted, five of whom returned to Japan in 2002. Pyongyang sees the issue as settled, having admitted to kidnapping 13 Japanese nationals and saying those unaccounted for had either died or their whereabouts were unknown.
Ri said Kim would be willing to change that position, established under his father Kim Jong Il, in order to obtain economic support.
"They're saying that the issue was resolved, but that's just to boost negotiating power until he makes concessions at a summit," he said.
Resentment and defection
Having studied at a French school in Algeria and lived in Cuba alongside his late father, who was a state media reporter, Ri says he had imagined a life in South Korea since his childhood, but never acted to flee until he was bullied by a diplomatic colleague for refusing his demand for bribes.
Then the defining moment came when Pyongyang instantly refused his request to get medical treatment in Mexico, at his own expense, for a ruptured disc in his neck.
"That exploded all the resentment I had been harbouring towards the regime," he said.
The Covid-19 lockdown deepened hardships at home and for those stationed overseas, with most telephone lines to Pyongyang cut to prevent any information from spreading in the outside world, Ri said.
Financial troubles have also forced North Korea to shut down a dozen of its 54 diplomatic missions.
"When they began reopening and summoning those working abroad in early 2023, they asked to bring everything from used toothbrushes to spoons back home, saying there's nothing there," he said.
Ri had also witnessed - and in his job tried to impede - the launch of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Cuba, a Cold War-era ally of North Korea.
"I had done everything to block that from happening, but establishing relations with Cuba was the best thing South Korea had done since last year," he said. "It was a model example of how the tides of history have turned, and where a normal civilisation of the international community is headed."
