North Korean leader says past diplomacy only confirmed US hostility

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his past negotiations with the United States only confirmed Washington’s “unchangeable” hostility toward his country and described his nuclear buildup as the only way to counter external threats, state media said Friday.

Kim spoke Thursday at a defense exhibition where North Korea displayed some of its most powerful weapons, including intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to target the U.S. mainland as well as artillery systems and drones, according to text and photos published by the North’s Korean Central News Agency. While meeting with army officers last week, he had pledged a “limitless” expansion of his military nuclear program.

Kim has yet to comment directly on Donald Trump's reelection as U.S. president. During his first term, Trump held three highly orchestrated summits with the North Korean leader in 2018 and 2019, before the diplomacy collapsed over disagreements on exchanging a relaxation of U.S.-led economic sanctions with North Korean steps to wind down its nuclear program.

During the speech at the exhibition, Kim touched on the failed summits without naming Trump.

“We have already gone as far as possible with the United States with negotiations, and what we ended up confirming was not a superpower’s will for coexistence, but a thorough position based on force and an unchangeable invasive and hostile policy” toward North Korea, Kim said.

Kim accused the United States of raising military pressure on North Korea by strengthening military cooperation with regional allies and increasing the deployment of “strategic strike means,” apparently a reference to major U.S. assets such as long-range bombers, submarines and aircraft carriers. He called for accelerated efforts to advance the capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, saying the country’s only guarantee of security is to build up the “strongest defense power that can overwhelm the enemy.”

Kim's expanding nuclear weapons and missile programs include various weapons targeting South Korea and Japan and longer-range missiles that have demonstrated the range to reach the U.S. mainland. Analysts say Kim’s nuclear push is aimed at eventually pressuring Washington into accepting North Korea as a nuclear power and to negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength.

In recent months, the focus of Kim’s foreign policy has been Russia as he tries to strengthen his international footing, embracing the idea of a “new Cold War” and aligning with President Vladimir Putin’s broader conflicts with the West.

Washington and its allies have accused North Korea of providing Russia with thousands of troops and large amounts of military equipment, including artillery systems and missiles, to help sustain its fighting in Ukraine. Kim in return could possibly receive badly needed economic aid and Russian technology transfers that would possibly enhance the threat posed by his nuclear-armed military, according to outside officials and experts.

North Korea also held a major arms exhibition in July last year and invited a Russian delegation led by then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who was given a personal tour by Kim that included a briefing on the North's expanding military capabilities, in what outside critics likened to a sales pitch. That event came weeks before Kim traveled to the Russia for a summit with Putin, which sped up military cooperation between the countries. North Korean state media photos of this year's exhibition showed various artillery systems, including what appeared to be 240mm multiple rocket launch systems that South Korea's spy agency believes were part of the North Korean weaponry recently sent to Russia. When asked whether North Korea was showcasing the systems it intends to export to Russia, Koo Byoungsam, a spokesperson for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, said he wouldn't make “premature judgments” but said the government was “monitoring related trends." “We stress once again that arms transfers between Russia and North Korea are a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions and an illegal act that undermines the norms of the international community,” he said.

Even with Trump returning to the White House, a quick resumption of diplomacy with North Korea could be unlikely, according to some experts. North Korea's deepening alliance with Russia and the weakening enforcement of sanctions against it are presenting further challenges in the push to resolve the nuclear standoff with Kim, who also has a greater perception of his bargaining power following the rapid expansion of his arsenal in recent years.

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center right, attends an opening ceremony of a defense exhibition in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, an opening ceremony of a defense exhibition is held in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, looks around at a defense exhibition in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech during an opening ceremony of a defense exhibition in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House passed legislation Thursday that would give the Treasury Department unilateral authority to strip the tax-exempt status of nonprofits it claims support terrorism, alarming civil liberties groups about how a second Trump presidency could invoke it to punish political opponents.

The bill passed 219-184, with the majority of the support coming from Republicans who accused Democrats of reversing course in their support for the “common sense” proposal only after Donald Trump was elected to a second term earlier this month.

Speaking on the House floor ahead of the vote, Rep. Jason Smith, GOP chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said his colleagues across the aisle would still be supporting the bill had Vice President Kamala Harris won the presidential election. “And we, as members of Congress, have the duty to make sure that taxpayers are not subsidizing terrorism,” the Missouri lawmaker said. “It’s very, very simple.”

But the proposal has drawn concern from a range of nonprofits who say it could be used to target organizations, including news outlets, universities, and civil society groups, that a future presidential administration disagrees with. They say it does not offer groups enough due process.

“This bill is an authoritarian play by Republicans to expand the sweeping powers of the executive branch, to go after political enemies and stifle political dissent," Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said on the House floor ahead of the vote.

Critics also see it as redundant as it is already against U.S. law to support designated terrorist groups. The proposal, which now goes to the Democratic-controlled Senate where its fate is uncertain, would also postpone tax filing deadlines for Americans held hostage or unlawfully detained abroad.

The bill would create a new category of “terrorist supporting organizations,” according to an analysis by the Congressional Research Service of a previous version of the legislation. This category is defined as any organization the Treasury Secretary designates as having provided material support to a terrorist organization in the past three years.

“We think this legislation is an overreach,” said Jenn Holcomb, vice president of government affairs at the Council on Foundations. “It would allow the Secretary of the Treasury to designate a 501c nonprofit as a terrorist organization at their discretion. And our concern is it doesn’t have enough in there to really ensure that a nonprofit understands the reasoning that a secretary designated as such.”

The bill would give a nonprofit designated as a “terror-supporting” 90 days to appeal that designation. Nonprofits like the American Civil Liberties Union have said that the bill does not require that the Secretary of Treasury disclose all the evidence that was used to make the designation.

The bill text outlines how the Treasury must send “a description of such material support or resources to the extent consistent with national security and law enforcement interests.”

In a joint statement with the Independent Sector, National Council of Nonprofits, and United Philanthropy Forum, the Council on Foundations also said the bill would shift the burden of proof to the nonprofit, and even if an organization was eventually cleared, the nonprofit would “risk irreparable damage to their operations and reputation.”

If it were to become law, the bill could apply to a range of nonprofits, including membership organizations, unions and private foundations.

A version of the bill was first introduced after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the House passed a previous version of the bill in April, including with the support of some Democrats.

The bill was also brought up for a vote last week but failed to garner a two-thirds majority required under the suspension of the rules.

Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American representative in Congress, said Thursday before the vote it would be her third time voting against the bill.

“I don’t care who the president of the United States is,” she said. "This is a dangerous and unconstitutional bill that would allow unchecked power to target nonprofit organizations as political enemies and shut them down without due process.”

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

The U.S. Capitol, including the House of Representatives, left, are seen on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)