Kim Jong-un said North Korea could "get along" with Washington if it accepted Pyongyang's nuclear status, state media said on Thursday, but has dashed any hopes of mended ties with "deceptive" neighbour Seoul.
Washington and Seoul have mounted a renewed push for high-level talks with reclusive North Korea, eyeing a potential summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in China later this year.
Having largely ignored these overtures for months, Kim finally staked his position as thousands gathered in Pyongyang for a rare congress of the ruling Workers' Party.
If Washington "respects our country's current (nuclear) status... and withdraws its hostile policy... there is no reason why we cannot get along well with the United States," Kim said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
The United States has for decades led efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear programme — but summits, sanctions and diplomatic pressure have had little impact.
The last summit between Kim and Trump in 2019 unravelled as the leaders argued over sanctions relief and what nuclear concessions North Korea might make in return.
Trump is slated to travel to China — North Korea's longtime ally — in late March through early April.
Speculation is mounting he may seek to meet with Kim on the sidelines of this trip.
A Trump-Kim meeting would be a major breakthrough after years of deadlocked diplomacy.
Trump stepped up his courtship of Kim during a tour of Asia last year, saying he was "100 percent" open to a meeting.
He even bucked long-held US policy by conceding that North Korea was already "sort of a nuclear power".
'Leave us alone'
Held just once every five years, the Workers' Party congress offers a rare glimpse into the workings of a nation where even mundane details are shrouded in secrecy.
Speaking as the days-long political spectacle drew to a close, Kim took a far more combative tone on South Korea.
Seoul's recent efforts to lower the temperature with North Korea were a "clumsy deceptive farce and a poor work", Kim said.
North Korea has "absolutely no business dealing with South Korea, its most hostile entity, and will permanently exclude South Korea from the category of compatriots", Kim said.
"As long as South Korea cannot escape the geopolitical conditions of having a border with us, the only way to live safely is to give up everything related to us and leave us alone."
In response, Seoul vowed to keep working for peaceful coexistence.
"To achieve this, the two Koreas must refrain from hostile and confrontational words and actions and build a foundation of mutual respect and trust," the government said in a statement.
North Korea's latest announcements reflect the view that "South Korea's continued insistence on North Korea's denuclearisation — directed at the US and the international community — fundamentally infringes on Pyongyang's national interests," said Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification.
Kim's remarks "signal an intention to pursue relations with the US independently, without going through South Korea," Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.
He was also making clear that he will "reject any negotiations premised on denuclearisation", Yang added.
