Leaders best of friends in crisis

NORTH Korea welcomed what it says was a letter from US President Donald Trump to leader Kim Jong-un, saying it was a sign of “the special and very firm personal relations” despite recent frictions.

A senior Trump administration official confirmed Mr Trump sent the letter and said it was “consistent with his efforts to engage global leaders during the ongoing pandemic”.

Mr Trump “looks forward to continued communications with Chairman Kim”, the official said

But North Korean state media reported Mr Kim’s powerful sister warned their good personal relationship was not enough, as a hiatus in disarmament talks drags on.

The statement by Kim Yo Jong came a day after the nuclear-armed North fired what appeared to be two shortrange ballistic missiles (pictured) off its east coast – the latest such action this year.

Since Mr Trump held a third summit with Mr Kim last June and briefly stepped into North Korea from the demilitarised zone with South Korea, no progress has been made on the US President’s bid to get Pyongyang to give up its nuclear and missile programs.

On Saturday Mr Kim observed “the demonstration fire of (a) tactical guided weapon,” to demonstrate the characteristics “and power of a new weapon system to be delivered” to army units, the North’s Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday.

KCNA said Mr Kim had received a letter from Mr Trump in which the US President said he was impressed by the North Korean leader’s efforts to defend his people from the coronavirus.

Mr Trump “expressed his intent to render co-operation in the anti-epidemic work, saying that he was impressed by the efforts made by Mr Kim to defend his people from the serious threat of the epidemic”.

The letter said that despite good personal relations between the leaders, “if impartiality and balance are not provided and unilateral and greedy intention is not taken away, the bilateral relations will continue to aggravate”.

While the letter reflects “excellent” ties between the two leaders, Ms Jong warned that broader relations between their two nations are different.

“We try to hope for the day when the relations between the two countries would be as good as the ones between the two top leaders, but it has to be left to time and be watched whether it can actually happen,” she said.