Trump releases ‘very nice’ letter from Kim Jong Un
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday again signaled optimism about efforts to end the nuclear standoff with North Korea, as he took the extraordinary diplomatic step of tweeting out a letter from Kim Jong Un.
The four-paragraph letter — an upbeat missive in which Kim voices hope in a ‘new future’ and speaks of his ‘invariable trust’ in Trump — is dated July 6, the day Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in North Korea for what turned out to be acrimonious talks with Kim’s regime.
“A very nice note from Chairman Kim of North Korea,” Trump tweeted alongside a copy of the letter. “Great progress being made!”
Addressing Trump, Kim describes their June 12 summit in Singapore, and the resulting joint statement, as the ‘start of a meaningful journey’.
“I fi rmly believe that the strong will, sincere efforts and unique approach of myself and Your Excellency Mr President aimed at opening up a new future between the DPRK and the US will sure surely come to fruition,” Kim writes, according to the translation tweeted by the president.
“I deeply appreciate the energetic and extraordinary efforts made by Your Excellency Mr President for the improvement of relations between the two countries and the faithful implementation of the joint statement,” he adds.
Kim also voices hope “the invariable trust and confidence in Your Excellency Mr. President will be further strengthened in the future process of taking practical actions.”
Pompeo travelled to Pyongyang for two days last week in a bid to flesh out denuclearisation commitments made during last month’s historic summit.
Speaking afterward in Tokyo, Pompeo insisted the talks were making progress and were being conducted in “good faith.”
But in stark contrast, Pyongyang’s take was overwhelmingly negative, with the North warning that the future of the peace process was being jeopardised by ‘ unilateral and gangster-like’ US demands for its nuclear disarmament.
North Korea has long trumpeted a denuclearisation goal, but one that it sees as a lengthy process of undefined multilateral disarmament on the entire Korean peninsula, rather than a unilateral dismantlement of its nuclear arsenal.
Separately, North Korean officials did not show up at planned talks with the US on Thursday to discuss repatriating the remains of American soldiers killed during the 1950- 53 Korean War.
Returning the remains was part of the deal signed by Kim and Trump in Singapore.
Pompeo had said a Pentagon team would meet with the North’s officials on or around Thursday at the inter-Korea border to discuss the repatriation.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the North Koreans called around midday to say the meeting would be delayed until July 15.
“We will be ready,” Nauert said.