North Korea's Kimopen to US talks

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says he has "fond memories" of US President Donald Trump and is open to future talks with the United States -- if he can keep his nuclear arsenal.

Kim met Trump three times for high-profile summits during Trump's first term, before talks collapsed in Hanoi in 2019 over what concessions Pyongyang was prepared to make on its atomic weapons.

The US demand that Kim give up his banned weapons has long been a sticking point between the two countries, with Pyongyang under successive rafts of UN sanctions over its nuclear and missile programmes.

"If the United States discards its delusional obsession with denuclearisation and, based on recognising reality, truly wishes for peaceful coexistence with us, then there is no reason we cannot meet it," Kim said, according to a report Monday by the official Korean Central News Agency.

"I still personally hold fond memories of the current US president, Trump," Kim added, in a wide-ranging speech to the country's Supreme People's Assembly.

Since the failed 2019 summit, North Korea has repeatedly said it will never give up its atomic weapons and declared itself an "irreversible" nuclear state. Kim reiterated that denuclearisation was not an option.

"The world already knows well what the United States does after it forces a country to give up its nuclear arms and disarm," he said.

"We will never give up our nuclear weapons."

Kim said sanctions had only helped the North in "growing stronger, building endurance and resistance that cannot be crushed by any pressure".