Old North Korean leader speech misrepresented as offer to mediate Mideast war
- Published on April 17, 2026 at 06:50
- 4 min read
- By Sammy HEUNG, AFP Hong Kong
As Iran and the United States mull further talks in Islamabad after negotiations initially collapsed in April 2026, Chinese social media posts circulated a mistranslated footage of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un falsely claiming it shows him offering to mediate the deal. It is in fact his New Year address in 2019, and there was no mention of Iran anywhere in his speech.
"I am ready at any time to sit down with the president of the United States and work together on mediation with Iran in order to produce results that will be welcomed by the international community. World peace is our main goal. The world has had enough of instability," reads a simplified Chinese X post shared on April 14, 2026, referring to the quote as a "rare original recording of Kim Jong Un".
"Now North Korea and South Korea are on the path to peace and prosperity, and I hope to conduct joint military operations with South Korea and other countries, but I will not allow other countries to deploy weapons near us."
The post includes a video of Kim sitting in his office delivering a speech in Korean.
The posts circulated after the US-Iran peace talks, which took place on the weekend of April 11, concluded without an agreement to end the conflict.
Following more than 20 hours of talks in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, US Vice President JD Vance admitted the yawning differences between the US and Iran proved to be insurmountable for the moment (archived link).
The United States sought a 20-year suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment program as part of a deal to end the war, according to media reports (archived link).
US President Donald Trump launched the war on February 28 claiming Iran was developing an atomic bomb -- which Tehran denies -- and vowed to never let the Islamic republic get its hands on a nuclear weapon.
The White House says, however, that it is in discussions about a second round of talks that would likely be in Pakistan again (archived link).
Similar claims have been shared on TikTok, Threads and the Chinese NetEast blog, as well as in other languages including English, Thai and Indonesian.
A user who thought the post was genuine commented: "Who cares about him? This is meant for the domestic audience in North Korea. It shows that General Kim wields significant influence on the international stage."
"Maybe he has figured things out and wanted to pave a path of reform for his daughter," another person said.
But the remarks attributed to Kim in the false post are fabricated and he does not mention Iran in the clip.
New Year's address
A reverse image search on Google leads to a picture showing the same scene in a media report of Kim's New Year's address in 2019 (archived link).
A keyword search in the archives of KCNA Watch, a website that monitors and archives North Korean media, found the false clip is an extract of Kim's address broadcast on North Korean national TV on January 1, 2019 (archived link).
A review of the clip shows he is actually saying in Korean: "I am ready to sit face to face with the United States president at any time, and will work hard to produce results welcomed by the international community without fail."
"However, if the United States does not keep its promise to the international community and misjudges the patience of our people by seeking to force something upon us unilaterally and continue with sanctions and pressure, then we will be left with no choice but to explore a new path to defend the sovereignty and interests of our country in order to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula."
Kim did not also say that he wants to conduct joint military operations with South Korea and other countries.
Instead, he said: "Now that the North and South have pledged to advance along a path of peace and prosperity, we insist that joint military exercises with other foreign forces -- the source of heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula -- should no longer be permitted and that the introduction of war equipment, including strategic assets, be completely halted."
Remarks about joint military exercises in the false clip appear at around 25 minutes into the broadcast, while he talked about his intention to meet with the US president at around the 30-minute mark, but there was no mention of Iran in the speech.
He met Trump during the US president's first term in February 2019 in Vietnam and in the Demilitarised Zone separating the two Koreas a few months later (archived link).
The pair also held talks in Singapore in 2018 -- the first meeting between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader.
A keyword search on the state broadcaster Korean Central News Agency's website and Google found no reports from credible sources on Kim's purported proposal.
Kim instead oversaw new tests of strategic cruise missiles and anti-warship missiles launched from a naval destroyer, state media reported on April 14 (archived link).
Analysts told AFP that the missile launch aimed to show North Korea's longtime adversary, the United States, that any war would be very different from Washington's conflict with Iran.
AFP has debunked other misinformation related to the Iran war here.
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