Trump warns North Korea: ‘You’ll lose everything if you get hostile’

Donald Trump has issued a blunt warning to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un if he resumes hostility ­towards the US.

Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un when they met on the North Korean side of the Demilitarised Zone in June. Picture: AP

Donald Trump has issued a blunt warning to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un not to jeopardise their “special relationship”, saying Pyongyang risks “losing everything” if it resumes hostility ­towards the US.

His strongly worded comments show the historic personal relationship between the US President and Kim is under enormous strain after almost a year of deadlock over North Korea’s failure to honour its promise to get rid of its ­nuclear weapons.

“Kim Jong-un is too smart and has far too much to lose, everything actually, if he acts in a hostile way. He signed a strong Denuclearization Agreement with me in Singapore,” Mr Trump tweeted.

“He does not want to void his special relationship with the President of the United States or interfere with the US Presidential Election in November.

“North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong-un, has tremendous economic potential, but it must denuclearise as promised.”

His warning came after North Korea provoked Washington by boasting that it had carried out “a successful test of great significance” at its Sohae satellite launch site at the weekend.

Mr Trump has tried to maintain his personal relationship with Kim, which was forged at their historic summit in Singapore last year, but it has been under growing strain because Kim has refused to honour his promise to denuclearise.

North Korea has stepped up its missile testing activity and at the weekend issued a cryptic comment about having conducted a test at Sohae, which produced a “successful result” that would “change the strategic position of North Korea in the future”. But Pyongyang did not disclose what the test was.

North Korea has called on the US to stop insisting on unilateral ­denuclearisation and has deman­ded relief from crippling economic sanctions.

Washington says it will not give sanctions relief until Pyongyang has at least begun the process of ­denuclearisation.

Tensions rose further last week when North Korea expressed displeasure after Mr Trump again ­referred to Mr Kim as “rocket man”, the term used by the President in 2017 when both leaders were exchanging insults and Kim called him a “dotard”.

At that stage, when North Korea was testing nuclear weapons and long-distance missiles to deliver them, Mr Trump threatened that the US might rain down upon North Korea “fire and fury like the world has never seen”.  Last week Mr Trump noted that Kim “likes sending rockets up … that’s why I call him Rocket Man”. The President also did not rule out US military action against Pyongyang in the future.

That prompted a sharp retort from Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s First Vice-Foreign Minister.

“If any language and expressions stoking the atmosphere of confrontation are used once again on purpose at a crucial moment as now, that must really be diagnosed as the relapse of the dotage of a ­dotard,” he said. Last weekend North Korea’s UN ambassador Kim Song ­accused the US of pursuing a “hostile policy” towards the country “in its attempt to stifle it”.

“We do not need to have lengthy talks with the US now and the denuclearisation is already gone out of the negotiation table,” he said.

On Sunday (AEST), Mr Trump said he had “a very good” relationship with Kim and that they both wanted to “keep it that way”.

“The relationship is very good, but you know, there is a certain hostility, there’s no doubt about it,” he said.

Discussions between the two countries have stalled since the unsuccessful summit between the two leaders in Vietnam in ­February.

Experts in Washington say there is almost no chance that North Korea will take meaningful steps to reduce its nuclear arsenal, which Pyongyang believes has ­allowed it to survive.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia