North Korea says Kim-Trump ties 'not bad' but it's not giving up its nuclear weapons
Seoul (AP): The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dismissed the US's intent to resume diplomacy on North Korea's denuclearisation, as she urged Washington to accept her country as a nuclear weapons state and find a new approach to restart talks.
Kim Yo Jong's statement suggested North Korea would only return to talks if the US rewards it for a partial surrender of its nuclear capability. Some experts say US President Donald Trump could still pursue talks with North Korea to make a diplomatic achievement.
Trump has recently bragged of his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed hopes of restarting nuclear diplomacy between them. Their high-stakes diplomacy in 2018-19 that occurred during Trump's first term unraveled after Trump rejected Kim's calls for extensive sanctions relief in return for dismantling his main nuclear complex, a limited denuclearization step. Kim has since executed weapons tests to modernize and expand his nuclear arsenal.
Kim's sister calls relations between her brother, Trump “not bad”
In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo Jong said she doesn't deny the personal relationship between her brother and Trump “is not bad.” But she said if their personal relations are to serve the purpose of North Korea's denuclearization, North Korea would view it as “nothing but a mockery.”
She said North Korea's nuclear capability has sharply increased since the first round of the Kim-Trump diplomacy and that any attempt to deny North Korea as a nuclear weapons state would be rejected.
“If the US fails to accept the changed reality and persists in the failed past, the DPRK-US meeting will remain as a hope' of the US side,” Kim Yo Jong said, referring to her country by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
She said it would be “advisable to seek another way of contact."
Kim Yo Jong is a key official on the Central Committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party. She handles the country's relations with South Korea and the United States, and South Korean officials and experts believe she is the North's second-most powerful person after her brother.
North Korea likely wants talks on partial denuclearisation
Kim Yo Jong said she was responding to reported comments by a US official that Trump is open to talks on denuclearisation. She likely was referring to a Saturday article by Yonhap news agency that cited an unidentified White House official as saying Trump “remains open to engaging with Leader Kim to achieve a fully denuclearised North Korea.”
“North Korea wants to say it's not interested in talks on denuclearisation and the US must determine what benefits it can give to the North first,” said Nam Sung-wook, a former head of the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank run by South Korea's spy agency.
Nam said Trump's likely desire to win a Nobel Peace Prize would prompt him to seek talks with Kim Jong Un and give him corresponding benefits for taking phased denuclearization steps. Nam said North Korea would want broad sanctions relief, a suspension of U.S.-South Korea military drills that it regards as invasion rehearsals and other economic incentives.
Kim Yeol Soo, an analyst at South Korea's Korea Institute for Military Affairs, said U.S. and North Korean officials could meet if they narrow some differences on terms for restoring talks. But he said Trump's unpredictability would make it extremely difficult to predict what concessions the Americans would offer.
Prospects for early US-North Korea talks likely depend on the Russia-Ukraine war
Other experts have earlier said that North Korea — now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia — sees no urgent need to resume diplomacy with the US and South Korea.
On Monday, Kim Yo Jong rebuffed overtures by South Korea's new liberal government, saying its “blind trust” in the country's alliance with the US and hostility toward North Korea make it no different from its conservative predecessor.
Nam said prospects for an early resumption of US-North Korea diplomacy would depend on whether the Russia-Ukraine war ends soon and US tariff negotiations with other countries are proceeded in a direction that Trump wants.
Kim, the analyst, said Trump may use his likely attendance of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea this autumn as a chance to travel on to North Korea or a Korean border village to meet Kim Jong Un. Kim Yo Jong on Monday described as “a daydream” a reported South Korean idea of inviting her brother to the regional summit.
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HC questions Delhi govt over failure to regulate sale of old vehicles, refers to Red Fort blast
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court questioned the city government on Wednesday over its failure to regulate the sale and transfer of used vehicles, while pointing out that in a recent bomb blast near the Red Fort, a second-hand car was used, making the issue more significant.
A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela asked the Delhi government to file a detailed response on the issue of regulating authorised dealers of registered vehicles.
"A car changes four hands but the original owner has not changed. Therefore, what happens? That man (the original owner) goes to the slaughterhouse? What is this? How are you permitting this? You will take a call when two-three more bomb blasts take place?" the bench asked the Delhi government's counsel.
The bomb blast near the iconic Mughal-era monument was carried out using a second-hand car, making the issue even more significant, it said.
The court listed the matter for further hearing in January 2026.
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The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) plea filed by an organisation, Towards Happy Earth Foundation, highlighting the challenges in the implementation of rules 55A to 55H of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, introduced in December 2022 to regulate authorised dealers of registered vehicles.
While the rules were intended to bring accountability to the second-hand vehicle market, the petitioner's counsel argued that they have failed in practice due to regulatory gaps and procedural hurdles.
The plea said there is a major gap in the amended framework, that is, the absence of any statutory mechanism for reporting dealer-to-dealer transfers.
"In reality, most used vehicles pass through multiple dealers before reaching the final buyer, but the rules recognise only the first transfer to the initial authorised dealer.
"As a result, the chain of custody breaks after the first step, defeating the very purpose of accountability," the petition said.
It added that because of these gaps, only a very small percentage of dealers across India have been able to obtain authorised dealer registration and in Delhi, not a single dealer has got it.
Consequently, lakhs of vehicles continue to circulate without any record of who is actually in possession of those, it said.
The plea said only a small fraction of India's estimated 30,000 to 40,000 used-vehicle dealers are registered under the authorised-dealer framework.
The petition also pointed out that the 11-year-old vehicle used in the November 10 bomb blast near the Red Fort was sold several times but was still registered in its original owner's name.
The blast near the Red Fort had claimed 15 lives.
