Trump says Kim wants to resume nuclear talks

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants to resume denuclearisation talks after Ussouth Korean war games end.

Trump tweeted that in a letter to him, Kim issued “a small apology” for a recent spate of missile tests, the latest of which came at daybreak on Saturday Korean time, and said they were to protest these joint military drills.

Trump said he looks “forward to seeing Kim Jong Un in the not too distant future!” “In a letter to me sent by Kim Jong Un, he stated, very nicely, that he would like to meet and start negotiations as soon as the joint Us/south Korea joint exercise are over,” Trump wrote.

North Korea, which has furiously protested such exercises in the past, has said its recent shortrange missile tests are designed to protest the war games.

On Saturday, Trump again seemed to side with Kim by criticising the exercises, which are a cornerstone of Us-south Korean military cooperation.

“It was a long letter, much of it complaining about the ridiculous and expensive exercises. It was also a small apology for testing the short range missiles, and that this testing would stop when the exercises end,” Trump said.

Trump has appeared determined to secure a denuclearisation agreement with North Korea ahead of next year’s US presidential elections, despite faltering talks since he first met Kim in a historic ice-breaking summit in Singapore in June 2018.

Even after their abortive second summit in February — and even as Pyongyang has continued to test missiles — Trump has been reluctant to criticise the North Korean leader.

It was a long letter, much of it complaining about the ridiculous and expensive exercises. It was also a small apology for testing the short range missiles, and that this testing would stop when the exercises end DONALD TRUMP US President