South Korea’s president said his US counterpart had told him the ‘time had come to pay attention to the North Korea issue’ at the G7 summit.Published On 19 Jun 202619 Jun 2026United States President Donald Trump intends to shift his focus to North Korea’s nuclear programme now that Washington has reached an agreement with Iran, South Korea’s president has said.Lee Jae Myung said in a news conference that Trump told him on Friday at a G7 dinner that “the time had come to pay attention to the North Korea issue,” a comment that could signal renewed US focus on Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listLee also told Trump that sanctions against North Korea were “ineffective”, pointing to deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.“Even a small amount of assistance from Russia is of great help to North Korea,” Lee said.The two Koreas remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, and are separated by a Demilitarized Zone through which the border runs. North Korea announced its first nuclear test in 2006 and is believed to have dozens of nuclear weapons.Pyongyang’s foreign outreachKim has recently sought to enhance his standing with his allies, sending troops and munitions to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine.He also recently hosted China’s President Xi Jinping in Pyongyang, soon after Xi had held back-to-back summits in Beijing with Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.Neither Pyongyang’s nor Beijing’s official statements mentioned the issue of North Korean denuclearisation – an outcome experts interpreted as tacit acceptance from China.Pyongya …
