North Korea dashed hopes that a change in U.S. administration or Seoul’s obsequiousness would moderate the regime’s behavior and provide an opportunity for resuming negotiations. Speaking at the Eighth Party Congress, Kim Jong-un Kim signaled he remained defiant as ever against complying with 11 UN resolutions requiring it to abandon its nuclear and missile programs. Kim declared that he has no intention of treating the new Biden administration any better than his predecessors. Pyongyang declared it wouldn’t change its policy regardless of who is in the White House. Kim conditioned resuming denuclearization negotiations on the U.S. abandoning its “hostile policy.” Doing so would require the United States capitulating to an extensive list of military, diplomatic, economic, and law enforcement demands. Kim also harshly criticized South Korea, despite President Moon Jae-in’s repeated efforts to curry favor. The Moon administration has offered extensive economic benefits, overlooked North Korean threats and insults, and recently enacted legislation to constrain South Korean freedom of speech in capitulation to Pyongyang’s demands. South Korean Minister of Unification Lee In-young had predicted that North Korea would offer a “positive message of dialogue and cooperation.” Instead, Kim Jong-un declared that inter-Korean relations had returned to the tense period before the 2018 Panmunjom inter-Korean summit declaration, which Moon had proclaimed at the time as a breakthrough in reducing tensions on the peninsula. Pyongyang dictated conditions that Seoul must adhere to, including suspending combined military drills with Washington and reducing South Korea’s planned military modernization plans. Kim left responsibility for future dialogue prospects firmly with Seoul, declaring there was no longer need for the regime “to show our goodwill unilaterally like in the past.” Despite the rebuke, the Moon administration quickly reaffirmed its “unwavering will to implement inter-Korean agreements,” stressed “mutual trust and respect,” and Moon eagerly promised to meet “anywhere, anytime.”