Kim Jong Un says he'll denuclearize if the U.S. promises not to invade

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
(Image credit: Korea Summit Press Pool/Getty Images)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday offered to denuclearize his nation in exchange for a formal end to the Korean War and a promise that the United States will not invade, a representative of the South Korean government said Sunday. Pyongyang has long cast its nuclear development as insurance against U.S.-orchestrated regime change like that in Iraq and Libya.

South Korea also reported Kim pledged to shut down his nuclear test site in May. The shutdown was announced last week, but a timeline was not previously made public.

"I know the Americans are inherently disposed against us, but when they talk with us, they will see that I am not the kind of person who would shoot nuclear weapons to the south, over the Pacific, or at the United States," Kim reportedly told South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.