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August 27, 2025 • 18 mins

US President Donald Trump has reaffirmed his ‘close relationship’ with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

In a meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, he said he hopes to meet with Kim later this year, saying “I look forward to seeing him... we got along great.”

Meanwhile, in an unusual move, Kim has recently released a highly emotive video of a ceremony for fallen soldiers in Pyongyang who died fighting for Russia.

So, what is Kim’s game plan here? And should New Zealand proceed if talks turn sour?

Today on The Front Page, International Relations professor Robert Patman is with us to unpack the latest.

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You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.

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Producer: Jane Yee

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Kyoda.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. US President
Donald Trump has reaffirmed his close relationship with North Korea's
Kim Jong un. In a meeting with South Korean President

(00:26):
Lee j jung, He said he hopes to meet with
Kim later this year, saying I look forward to seeing him.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
We got along great.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Meanwhile, in an unusual move, Kim has recently released a
highly emotive video of a ceremony for fallen soldiers in
Pyeongyang who died fighting for Russia. So what is Kim's
game plan here and how should New Zealand proceed if
talks turn sour? Today on the Front Page, International relations

(01:00):
professor Robert Patman is with us to unpack the latest.
First off, Robert, Donald Trump has been touting his friendly
relationship with Kim Jong un while meeting South Korea's at
Lee j muong.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Lee asked Trump to meet with Kim. Why would this.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Be Well, that's because in his first administration, mister Trump
surprised many people by entering into correspondence with the North
Korean dictator and meeting him. Unfortunately, Although mister Trump hailed
his dialogue with the North Korean dictator. It didn't achieve
progress in getting rid of North Korea's nuclear capability, and

(01:47):
it did not produce progress in reducing the tension with
South Korea and North Korea. Remember, those two countries are
divided and both do not fully recognize the sovereignty of
the other. Again, mister Trump has talked up his relationship
with the North Korean dictator, but he even claimed, actually

(02:10):
in the recent comments, that he knew Kim johng un
better than anyone except for his sister, which is an
extraordinary claim. I'm sure the people who have to work
for the North Korean dictator on a daily basis might
be prepared to trade praiss with mister Trump. But yeah,
I mean it's an extraordinary claim, and I just think

(02:31):
we have to take it with a pinch of salt.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
I also noted that he said something on along the
lines of we also talked about all kinds of things,
even things that we probably shouldn't have been talking about.
What do you make of Trump's being so happy to
make such a show of how great friends they are.
I mean, this is a dictator we're talking about.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Here, he was very comfortable talking to dictators. He's got
a real soft spot for Ladimir Putin, you know, which
is Vladimir Putin presides over a murderous regime which has
invaded a neighboring country, which has turned out catastrophically for
both Ukraine and Russia. So we shouldn't be surprised about that.

(03:15):
And he also, mister Trump likes to put the emphasis
on himself as a deal maker, you know, and that
sort of emphasis on being a deal maker ties in
with this sort of narrative that he's got special relationships
with some of the most feared people in the world,

(03:36):
such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong un. So I
think he's hyping up leverage with the North Koreans, but
there's no evidence that North Korea have actually delivered anything
in terms of substance. In terms of the relationship between
Trump and Kim Jong un, well.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Since Trump's January inauguration, Kim has apparently ignored all of
his repeated calls to revive these talks. I mean, what
are the chances of this sudden display of interest persuading
Kim to pick up the phone.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
I given that he's been chipping or what he's been
trying to reactivate the dialogue. I can't see. You know,
Kim Jong un may respond, but he'll want that relationship
on his own terms. And I think he's happy to
flatter mister Trump and even have high profile meetings. But

(04:33):
Kim Jong un is not going to give up his
nuclear weapons for President Trump, and he's not going to
give up his claim to be the true leader of
all Korea, including South Korea. I'm not really sure what
mister Trump is hoping for. North Korea is linked to Russia.

(04:54):
North Korea recently provided around fifteen thousand troops for the
Russian It supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine by allowing
Russian troops to be stationed in Kirsk, which was as
a result of the Russian invasions. The Ukrainians launched a
counter invasion mini invasion of Kursk, and the North Koreans

(05:21):
certainly lost quite a lot of troops. About five percent
of the deployment were killed and there's about six hundred
troops and North Korea, I mean, North Korea's relationship with
Russia has bloomed mainly because Russia is pretty desperate. It
has apart from China and North Korea, it's got a

(05:43):
shortage of friends. And what was good from randomir Putin's
point of view that North Korea has a big army.
It wasn't battle tested, not since nineteen fifty three, but
it provided a lot of troops, and it also provided
ammunition and artillery shells, and it could provide more troops

(06:04):
according to speculation, but this is coming at a price.
Kim Jong un probably sees this as a lucrative relationship
because he gets a certain amount of money for every
troop each month that's deployed. We don't know the exact amount,
but it's rumored to be in the vicinity of twelve

(06:25):
hundred US dollars to fifteen hundred US dollars. I'm not
sure that money goes to the family's concerned, but yeah,
I mean maybe mister Trump believes by reactivating the relationship
with North Korea he might be able to weaken the
relationship between China and North Korea, but also the relationship

(06:49):
between Russia and North Korea. On the other hand, he
may see this as complimentary to his efforts of wooing
Russia because Russia, the administration has quite openly spoken about
a geopolitical alliance with Ladmir Putins Russia, which, as I say,

(07:12):
has flagrantly broken international law of its invasion of Ukraine.
And I think part of the motivation is the administration believes,
in my view mistaken that the way to undermine China's
challenge to the United States is to separate Russia and China.
But you know, the counter argument is if mister Trump

(07:35):
supports Vladimir Putin and once the war to be settled
on Putin's terms, that is that the Russians can keep
land they illegally stole from Ukraine, China will watch that
and see that as American weakness. They do not regard
Russia as a superpower. They see Russia for what it is,
a regional country with an economy of the size of Spain.

(07:59):
And so China, far from being diminished by American support
for Putin, could be emboldened by any settlement that rewarded
Putin's aggression by stepping up their own pressure in the
Indo Pacific region. And of course that's a great concern

(08:19):
to New Zealand, because it's no secret that we've become
concerned about Chinese assurgon of us in relation to the
Solomons and the Cook Islands.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Would you go back to the DMZ to meet with.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
The North Korea leads?

Speaker 3 (08:39):
I loved it.

Speaker 4 (08:40):
Remember when I walked across the line and everyone went crazy,
especially Secret Service. I would say, I have a very
good relationship. I understand, and I spent a lot of
free time with them talking about things that we probably
aren't supposed to talk about. And you know, I just
I get along with them really well. I think he

(09:01):
has a country of great potential, tremendous.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
When we talk about Kim Jong un.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
For the first time, he has acknowledged the deaths of
over one hundred troops who were fighting for Russia in Ukraine.
A video of a ceremony honoring them has been released,
with an emotional looking Kim praising the fighting spirit of
the heroes. I mean, first off, how unusual is this

(09:29):
display from King Kim Jong un?

Speaker 1 (09:32):
And secondly, why release this video?

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Now that's a good question. It is unusual by North
Korean watchers say, this is a most unusual move. So
why has Kim Jong un taken this step? It may
be an attempt to articulate and demonstrate displeasure to Putin

(09:56):
for being excluded from the discussions that have been going
on between Russia, the United States, and the Ukraine and
the Europeans about some sort of peace settlement. I mean,
North Korea is, like Russia, pretty isolated internationally. This is
speculation in my part. None of us really know, but

(10:17):
there have been rumors of tension between Putin and Kim
Jong Un. I think both have an interest in downplaying
that and presenting themselves there's very close, closely aligned, but
Kim Jong un may well believe that by honoring publicly

(10:41):
recognizing the dead of North Koreans who fought on putinside,
it's a reminder to the Russian leadership not to take
this support for granted. There haven't been too many incidences,
of course, to compare this situation with, because North Korea
has been quite an insula state, and while it has

(11:01):
a large, enormous army, actually it's largely been focused on
dealing with the tensions with neighboring South Korea.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
Well, North Korea does remain one of the world's most
closed societies. I mean, how important is it, especially at
a time like this, with these geopolitical tensions, that the
world remain in contact with regimes like that one well.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
From Kim Jong UN's point of view, I mean, the
economy of North Korea is really struggling and has been
for a long time, and that was one of the
motivations I think for North Korea lending a helping hand
to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine because it created economic
opportunities that it didn't have before. It was unable to

(11:55):
transfer a lot of aging stockpiles of military equipment that
we're not being used to Russia and get well paid
for it. And secondly, he's the regime has benefited financially
by supporting Putin's invasion by sending troops. I suppose that

(12:17):
Kim Jong un would like, ideally other countries to begin
to take an interest in by ending isolation. I suppose
Kim Jong un would hope that there will be opportunities
for greater investment in North Korea. But in my view,

(12:38):
it's a bit of a fantasy, because, yeah, I think
that there's always this problem for authoritarian regimes. They want
to remain very strict control, but that's actually inconsistent or
at a odds with having a vibrant economy, which often
involves a private sector, which they're not keen on because

(12:59):
they that means that their control is limited. So yeah,
I mean, but yeah, there's no doubt about it, and
it may be a way of prodding China. The interesting
China has consistently kept Kim Jong un afloat until it

(13:20):
signed a defense packed with Russia last year. Until that
moment last year, China had been the major ally of
North Korea, and the Chinese, I think, tolerate Kim Jong un.
They're irritated by him, particularly his mercurial style of leadership.
He sometimes ignores their advice about testing weapons and he

(13:44):
does his own thing. But his regime largely depends on
Chinese support for survival, and it provides both food and energy.
Why does it do that if it finds Kim Jong
un such a pain in the rear, Probably because their
nightmare scenario would be if they didn't support Kim Jong un,

(14:06):
the regime will collapse and that South Korea would probably
with its vibrant democracy, quickly spread to North Korea and
the country will be unified on a democratic market economy basis,
And that's what they just don't want.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Let's say Trump does get a meeting with Kim Jong un,
and they discuss de escalation measures and what if in
a world where Trump says, look sanctionally, there's talk of
sanctions relief. How would New Zealand's strict anti nuclear and

(14:43):
sanctions policies be affected by that, because, of course, no
business in New Zealand can do business with North Korean businesses,
for example, because of these sanctions that have been in
place for so long.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
Well, I I think you know New Zealand won't be
in a hurry to activate economic contacts with North Korea.
We have a very good relationship with South Korea and
I don't think we do anything to jeopardize that. And
it's interesting that President Lee, who succeeded President Huon, the

(15:22):
new president, relatively new president of South Korea, has welcomed
President Trump's interest in a dialogue with Kim John Un,
because the South Korean government does want to improve relations
with North Korea, but has so far been impervious or
indifferent to South Korea's attempts to improve relations. Is no

(15:48):
secret that President Yun took a much more matter of
fact stance towards North Korea and didn't try and in
any way gloss over the fact that North Korea is
run by dictatorship. It may be the new government is
more pragmatic and is prepared to try to improve relations.

(16:10):
Is certainly showing efforts in that way, and maybe mister
Trump could be helpful in that. But as for the
reasons we've gone through, apart from atmospherics, I can't see
what can be achieved substantively. It seems to me that
South Korea and the United States would love North Korea
to get rid of their nuclear capability. But from King

(16:32):
John's UN's point of view, that's his ace, you know,
that's his ace in the pack. Why would he get
rid of a serious deterrent? Let's be clear. From North
Korea's point of view, and perhaps from Iran's point of view,
one of the things that deters what they see as

(16:53):
Western backed aggression or Western interference is the reality that
North Korea has a nuclear weapon. So they believe that's
the most important guaranteel of the dictatorship that Kim Jong
un runs. So I can't see any compromise there. So yeah,

(17:14):
I mean, it seems to me that there's very limited
scope for a significant improvement.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
Thanks for joining us, Robert, Thank you.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzdherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is
produced by Jane Ye.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
And Richard Martin, who is also our editor. I'm Chelsea Daniels.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look
behind the headlines.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Okay,
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