The former president isn't walking back on his false statements about Harris' race, he is in fact doubling down

STORY: North Korea is keen to restart nuclear talks with the United States if Donald Trump is re-elected as president. That's according to a high-profile North Korean defector - senior diplomat Ri Il Gyu, who escaped from Cuba last month. In an exclusive interview with Reuters in Seoul - his first sit-down talk with international media - Ri said Pyongyang's working on a new negotiating strategy, with the aim of lifting sanctions on its weapons programs, removing its designation as a state sponsor of terrorism and eliciting economic aid. "This time, the foreign ministry would definitely gain power and take charge, and it won't be so easy for Trump to tie North Korea's hands and feet again for four years without giving anything." Ri's comments signal a potential 180-turn from Pyongyang. In recent statements, the North has said it could ditch the possibility of dialogue with the U.S. and warned of armed confrontation. A 2019 summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-president Trump in Vietnam collapsed over sanctions for which Ri partly blamed Kim's decision to entrust what he called "inexperienced" and "clueless" military commanders with nuclear diplomacy. "Kim Jong Un doesn't know much about international relations and diplomacy, which means he is not good at making strategic judgments." Meanwhile, Ri said North Korea received help with its missile technology and economy by forging closer ties with Russia. But he says the bigger gain could be to block additional sanctions and undercut existing ones, raising Pyongyang's bargaining power against Washington. According to Ri, the COVID-19 lockdown deepened hardships at home and for those stationed overseas. Financial troubles also forced North Korea to shut down a dozen of its 54 diplomatic missions. "As I recall, there were talks about reopening around April or May 2023. From that time, these kinds of messages started to leak out. Those who were summoned were told to bring everything, even used spoons and toothbrushes, back home.” Ri said Kim is also looking to hold a summit with Japan for economic support - in return it'll offer concessions on the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 80s. Tokyo believes North Korea abducted 17 of its citizens, five of whom returned to Japan in 2002, but Tokyo suspects hundreds more may have been taken. Ri is the most senior diplomat to defect to the South since 2016. He says his job at the embassy in Cuba was to impede the launch of diplomatic relations between South Korea and Cuba, a Cold War-era ally of North Korea. He now says the South's diplomatic success with Cuba is "the best thing South Korea had done since last year" and "a model example of how the tides of history have turned." Ri said he had imagined a life in South Korea since his childhood. But he cemented his decision to leave the reclusive North after Pyongyang refused his request to get medical treatment in Mexico at his own expense for a ruptured disc in his neck. "That blew up all the resentment I had been harboring towards the North Korean regime."