North Korea has firmly rejected direct bilateral engagement with South Korea, declaring the two states hostile and ruling out face-to-face contact, exchanges, or negotiations after incidents including September 2026 DMZ mine blasts that prompted Seoul's calls for military talks on the Military Demarcation Line. Pyongyang's leadership has dismissed South Korean proposals for dialogue as insincere or unilateral while prioritizing ties with China and Russia and signaling openness only to U.S. talks that acknowledge its nuclear status. South Korean officials, including President Lee Jae-myung and Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, continue advocating inter-Korean military discussions and hope to expand any Trump-Kim meeting around the November APEC summit into four-party peace talks. These dynamics, combined with North Korea's missile activity and refusal to address border issues through Seoul, shape trader assessments of near-term direct talks between the two Koreas.