Trump signals renewed focus on North Korea nuclear issue after Iran deal

United States President Donald Trump is said to be shifting attention toward North Korea's nuclear programme after Washington reached an agreement with Iran. South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung said Trump made the remark during a G7 dinner, telling him that "the time had come to pay attention to the North Korea issue." The comments suggest a possible change in the White House's immediate foreign policy focus, with Pyongyang back on the agenda after months in which Iran had been a central concern. Lee said he raised the limits of sanctions on North Korea during the discussion, arguing that they were ineffective.

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He linked that view to what he described as deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia. According to Lee, even limited Russian assistance is highly valuable to Pyongyang, underscoring how external support can affect the North Korean leadership's calculations. The exchange matters because North Korea remains one of the world's most entrenched nuclear challenges.

The two Koreas are still technically at war, with their 1950-53 conflict ending in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, and the border is divided by the Demilitarized Zone. North Korea announced its first nuclear test in 2006 and is believed to possess dozens of nuclear weapons, making any shift in US policy significant for regional security and alliance coordination. The reported comments also come against a wider backdrop of North Korea's efforts to strengthen ties with major powers.

Lee said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sought to bolster his standing by sending troops and munitions to support Russia's war against Ukraine. He also recently hosted China's President Xi Jinping in Pyongyang, after Xi held separate summits with Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing. The article said neither Pyongyang nor Beijing publicly mentioned denuclearisation in those meetings, which experts interpreted as a sign of tacit acceptance from China.

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Trump's approach to North Korea has shifted before. During his first term, he met Kim three times and pursued a denuclearisation deal, but the effort produced no tangible progress. The 2019 Hanoi summit collapsed over the scope of denuclearisation and sanctions relief, and Pyongyang later described itself as an "irreversible" nuclear state.

Trump also said last year that he was "100 percent" open to meeting Kim again, but that offer went unanswered. What remains unclear is whether the latest remarks will lead to a concrete policy change, renewed diplomacy, or a new round of pressure on Pyongyang. It is also not clear how South Korea, Russia and China would respond if Washington does refocus on the issue.

For now, the comments point to North Korea returning to the centre of US strategic attention after the Iran agreement.

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