Shafaqna Pakistan: A day after ordering the United States to scale back military exercises with South Korea and describing North Korea as “unthreatening and respectful,” US President Donald Trump said on Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had responded to his efforts to reestablish contact.
Trump’s engagement with Kim has received less attention from the White House than during his first term, when the two leaders held meetings and exchanged letters. However, the US president has repeatedly expressed interest in reviving direct diplomatic engagement with the North Korean leader.
Asked by a reporter in the Oval Office why Kim had not responded to his attempts to resume dialogue, Trump replied, “he has,” without providing further details.
White House officials and North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York had not immediately responded to requests for comment.
Trump on Sunday instructed the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with long-term Asian ally South Korea, citing the cost of the drills and Seoul’s refusal to take part in actions against Iran. North Korea denounces such drills as preparations for war.
Kim and Trump’s relationship was a dominant theme during Trump’s first term. They held summits in 2018 and 2019 before negotiations broke down over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons arsenal. North Korea is under heavy international sanctions over those weapons, as well as its ballistic missiles.
Last year, Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, conceded that the personal relationship between her brother and Trump was “not bad,” but if Washington intended to use a personal relationship as a way to end Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, the effort would only be the subject of “mockery.”
Since Trump and Kim last met in 2019, North Korea has significantly strengthened ties with Russia while maintaining close relations with China. North Korean troops have fought alongside Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, and Kyiv said last week that North Korean-made missiles were used in a Russian ballistic missile attack on a steel plant in Zaporizhzhia.
Trump’s administration has repeatedly criticised North Korea’s military support for Russia in Ukraine, but on Monday the president said “Kim Jong Un has always treated me with great respect.”
“I understand him. He understands me,” he said.
On Tuesday in Pyongyang, while making no mention of Trump, North Korea’s state news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying in a message to North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui that North Korea and Russia are working to establish a “new and righteous world order”.
Source: Express Tribune
